Qatar 2022 Team Preview: Los Ticos - Sports Blog by Bettitude

Written By Uche Dozie

The last team to punch the World Cup ticket, ranked 31st in the world and making it to their third consecutive World Cup tournaments, Costa Rica are unique in their own right and a force to be reckoned with.

They are playing in their sixth World Cup since 1990. In fact, that figure only doubled recently after she made it to the 2022, 2006, 2014 and 2018 and in Qatar. With their best outing in the mundial being the 2014 showpiece where Costa Rica reached the quarter finals following qualification from a group that had England, Italy and Uruguay. The Costa Rican team lost to the Netherlands in the quarter finals after getting past Greece in the round of 16.

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Costa Rica remains the only Central American team to win a match at a World Cup, which they have done five times, and the only team within that region to qualify past the group stage, which they have done twice.

The Team

Costa Rica’s 26-man squad to the World Cup

Costa Rica is not your regular free scoring side. They will rather sit deep and hit you on the counter. They score few and concede less; quiet a compact team.

Coach

62-year-old Luis Fernando Suárez is the manager of this team. He became the team’s pilot in 2021 revamping it to an efficient side who played six games in 2022 winning five and playing one draw. The results pushed them to the continental playoffs against New Zealand which they won and qualified.

This is his third World Cup after leading Ecuador to the last 16 at the 2006 tournament and Honduras eight years later, when they failed to get out of the group.

The Colombian you can say, knows his onions and has experience on his side.

Key Players

Keylor Navas

He is without doubt the most prominent figure in the team. The one with 15 saves during the 2014 World Cup. He has shown time and time again that if we are to regard Costa Rica’s strength at the back, he has to be the propelling factor.

Football factly on twitter sums up the CV of the 35-year-old this way:

◾ GK that led Real Madrid to 3 #UCL titles in a row.

◾ GK that led PSG to there 1st ever #UCL final.

◾ GK that led Costa Rica for the 1st time to 3 World Cup editions in a row.

One of the most underrated and under appreciated players of our generation, Keylor Navas! 🙌🇨🇷 pic.twitter.com/2Z7FSJWbqQ
— Football Factly (@FootballFactly) November 16, 2022

Trust Navas to be the man in between the sticks to give experience and expertise to this team.

They also have in Óscar Duarte and Francisco Calvo a strong central defence pairing. Going forward the team rely on speedy counterattacks, using the distribution skills Celso Borges and Joel Campbell to unleash the pace of Bennette and Anthony Contreras.

Expectation

In a Group E that has former World Cup winners like Spain, Germany and Japan, Costa Rica without mincing words is placed third to qualify here.

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However, we say they have done the unthinkable in the past and we will not be surprised if Spain or Germany gives way for this team to progress to the next round.