(QCOSTARICA SPORTS) Promising a team reminiscent of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Costa Rica’s coach Paulo Wanchope is confident the Seleccion (national team) will beat Spain in the international friendly to be played this afternoon (Thursday).
As Costa Rica and Spain are face each other today, the stars of the game, without a doubt will be its goalkeepers: Keylor Navas for Costa Rica, and David de Gea for Spain, while Iker Casillas is expected to be benched.
The game today is being played in Leon, Spain starting at 2:00pm local time.
Certainly the cameras will give a special emphasis to the three goalkeepers, who will be under scrutiny.
The curiosity of this is that all Navas and Casillas for the same team, the Real Madrid. While Casillas is said to be on his way out, leaving the Real Madrid to pave the way for Manchester United’s David de Gea. Casillas has played for Real Madrid for 16 years, but is set to lose the No 1 spot to De Gea.
Both Spain and Costa Rica will be hoping to bounce back from defeats: Spain were beaten 2-0 by Netherlands in their last fixture towards the end of March, while Costa Rica went down 1-0 to Colombia in a friendly on Saturday.
After today, Costa Rica have one more friendly, against Mexico before the serious business of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which gets underway in July.
Costa Rica have been drawn into Group B alongside Canada, El Salvador and Jamaica. They reached the quarter-finals in both 2005 and 2007, before reaching the semis in 2009. Each of their last two appearances have brought quarter-final spots, but have not won the competition since 1989.