Costa Rica’s national team, La Sele, is headed for Brazil in June for World Cup play. Yessterday we learned that “tricolor” has been grouped, drawn at random, with Italy, England and Uruguay.
The Ticos will have a daunting task to pass the first round of play, facing of with the powerful “Azurri” and a good team from Uruguay.
As far as the England team, they should not pose a problem. England manager Roy Hodgson told NBC Sports, “Overall it was one of the worst draws England could get…For as long as I can remember, England fans have gone into every major tournament believing they can win it, and are then knocked back down to earth with a thud after yet another penalty shootout defeat in the knockout stages.”
Backing the Costa Rica team is the fact that Costa Rica is the third most successful team in CONCACAF after Mexico and the United States. They are the most successful team in Central America having qualified to four World Cups, including reaching the last sixteen on their debut in Italy 1990.
In 2006, Costa Rica qualified for the World Cup in Germany, with their worst World Cup to date, finishing 31st out of 32 teams.
Costa Rica has qualified first in the CONCACAF Final Round in both the 1990 World Cup qualification final round and 2002 World Cup qualification final round. Costa Rica is currently second in the CONCACAF Final Round for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
