Costa Rica

4 entrants predicted Costa Rica to win the World Cup

61 entrants are supporting Costa Rica

Top 10 Costa Rica supporters

Pos	Name	Po
1	Zachary Swan Columbia	98
2	Fernando J. Boschini  USA	93
3	BOZZO EIRE	91
4	Alex Arias  Los Angeles, CA	90
5	Fernando G Boschini  USA	83
6	Dan Ford   MIT	80
7	David England	79
8	Alex Sanchez Costa Rica	76
9	Ove Dalsgaard  Silkeborg	75
9	Rulo Acuna Costa Rica	75

Group matches

Team profile

• Coach: Alexandre Guimaraes, 2005-
• World Cup appearances: 3
• First World Cup: 1990
• Best performance at World Cup: Round 2, 1990

The Costa Rica national football team, nicknamed Los Ticos, is the national team of Costa Rica and is controlled by the Federación Costarricense de Fútbol. They made three World Cups, including an improbable run to the 1990 World Cup second round under coach Bora Milutinovic, and a solid showing in the 2002 World Cup in which they had the misfortune to be seeded in group play with eventual champions Brazil and third-place finishing Turkey, recently Los Ticos qualified to the 2006 Germany World Cup. Costa Rica's best finish in the CONCACAF Gold Cup was second in 2002. They won the UNCAF Nations Cup five times. Recently, Costa Rica have been invited to participate in three Copa Américas, making the quarterfinals on their last two visits.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1934 - Did not enter
• 1938 - Withdrew
• 1950 to 1954 - Did not enter
• 1958 to 1986 - Did not qualify
• 1990 - Round 2
• 1994 - Did not qualify
• 1998 - Did not qualify
• 2002 - Round 1
• 2006 - Qualified

World Cup games

Italy 1990

"Few Costaricans will ever forget this world cup."

Game #1: Scotland - Costa Rica

The build up to this game was a combination of hope and fear. Costa Rica was well aware that Scotland was qualifying for their 5th consecutive World cup and a contender in its own right. Scotland had famous premiership players and height, two factors absent from the Costarican squad. As the game progressed, the first hero of the Costarican squad was born: the goalkeeper, Gabelo Conejo. With cat-like reflexes and a clear command of the penalty box, he stopped Scotlands first half charge. Costa Rica went into half time with a sense of accomplishment and returned to the second half with a spark of confidence. In the 49th minute, the midfielder Hector Marchena charged into the penalty box and passed the ball to Claudio Jara. In a moment of brilliance, he heel-kicked the ball behind him, leaving the Scotish defense out of reach. The ball rolled over to Juan Cayasso, and without losing his nerve, he kicked the ball over the diving goalkeeper. Scotland increased their pressure for the remainder of the game, but were stopped by a strong Costarican defense and Conejo's uncanny saves. As the referee blew the final whistle, Costa Rica had achieved the first win by an American team in a Europe-held World Cup. The country erupted in joy.

Game #2: Brazil - Costa Rica

Spirits were high after the win against Scotland, and many Costaricans were hopeful of meeting Brazil and some even believed we could surprise the former world champions. However, Velibor Milutinovic, Costa Rica's coach had other ideas. Well aware that his squad was the clear underdog he decided to use a conservative and defensive pattern all through the game. On the 33 minute, the powerfull midfielder Müller, made a long shot from the right side of the penalty box. The ball sneaked by Conejo, but just after being deflected by the Costarican defender Mauricio Montero. This was an unlucky event for Montero, that during the elimination round had missed a crutial penalty against the USA and had been close to costing the team the qualification; evenmore, the ball was deflected by hitting him on the buttocks, so it was apt for satire by most Costaricans. The whole matter was a bitter pill for the humble Costarican defender. However, during the game he proceded to vindicate himself by playing with zeal and helping stop the Brazilian offense. When the game finished the score remained 1-0 and Costa Rica had lost by only one "lucky" goal.

Game #3: Costa Rica - Sweden

After the loss to Brazil, Costa Rica went into the match against Sweden with hopes of acomplishing something, but well aware that Sweden had a long tradition of going far in world cups. As the game progressed, the Costarican team found itself huddled in its own area fending of the attacks of the desperate Swedish team that hoped to leave the World Cup with some dignity, after losing two its previous games. In the 32nd minute, Ekström finally scored for Sweden and sent Costa Rica into half time, with low spirits. Also, during the first half something happend that most Costaricans believe changed the fate of the teams success in the World Cup. The goalie, and hero of the campaign, Luis Gabelo Conejo, was injured after a rough play by a Swedish striker. Conejo continued for the rest of the game, but would be sidelined if the team continued to the next round. The second half started off with both teams continuing their first-half strategy. But as the game progressed, the Costarican team found itself on the offensive more and more. Many Costaricans, attribute the change in the game to the aparent fatigue of the Swedish players and by the end of the match, there was an obvoius change. In the 75th minute, there was a free kick awarded to Costa Rica on the right side of the Swedish penalthy box. From the ensuing play, the squad captain Roger Flores, headed in the ball for the equalizing goal. The team seemed to obtain renewed strength from this goal and increased the attacks, while the Swedish team seemed to want to finish the game in a tie. In the 88th minute, the swedish goal keeper kicked a long ball out into the midfield, but Alexander Guimaraes headed the ball back into open field and a race broke out between Hernan Medford and the Swedish defense. Medford, an extremely fast player, outran the tired Sweddish defense and found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. With a small hesitation, he kicked a ground ball just out of the goalkeepers reach and the ball rolled into the lower-right corner of the goal, brushing the goalpost as it entered. The goal is one of Costa Rica's fondest memories and still haunts some Swedish fans to this day. The game ended 2-1, and Costaricans could not believe they had qualified to the next round in second place.

Encyclopedia information from Wikipedia article 'Costa Rica national football team'. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.