Costa Rica

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Few sides may fear Costa Rica, a team that is seen as good to watch and not bad to play against. The fact is however that the Central Americans have a decent World Cup record.

Two times Costa Rica have appeared at the World Cup, and they have made it to the second stage once and just missed out once on goal difference - not too bad when one considers the fact that Brazil were group members in both competitions.

The fact remains that the nation of 4 million doesn't have the pedigree of regional stablemates the USA and Mexico, a fact that was borne out in qualifying as Alexandre Guimaraes led the side into third place.

The former player took the reins in April as the club was floundering near the bottom of the group but four wins in six games under Guimaraes was enough to beat Trinidad and Tobago into fourth.

Paulo Wanchope is the best-known of the Tico players and the ex-Derby, Manchester City and West Ham star is still around but now holds the country's all-time goal record and plies his trade in Qatar in the Middle East, four years on it is debatable if he has what it takes to lead the team into the second round.

Coach: Alexandre Guimaraes (BRA)
FIFA Ranking: 21

Costa Rica Matches

Match #	Date & Time	Group	Teams		Result	Venue
1	Fri 9th Jun 18:00	A	GER	CRC	4 - 2	Munich
18	Thu 15th Jun 15:00	A	ECU	CRC	3 - 0	Hamburg
34	Tue 20th Jun 16:00	A	CRC	POL	1 - 2	Hanover

Match times shown are local times for Germany (CEST/GMT+0200). Click on match date/time to view match statistics.

Past World Cup performance

First Round: 2002
Second Round: 1990

Key Players

Paulo Wanchope

World Cup 2006 Qualification

Third place in the CONCACAF Stage Three qualifying group, behind Mexico and USA.

Squad

						Total		World Cup 2006
#	Posn	Name	DOB	Club		Caps	Goals	Pld	Goals	OG	YC	RC
1	GK	Mesen Alvaro	24-12-1972	Herediano	CRC	38	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	DF	Drummond Jervis	08-09-1976	Saprissa	CRC	59	1	2	0	0	0	0
3	DF	Marin Luis	10-08-1974	Alajuelense	CRC	124	5	3	0	0	2	0
4	DF	Umana Michael	16-07-1982	Brujas	CRC	22	0	3	0	0	1	0
5	DF	Martinez Gilberto	01-10-1979	Brescia	ITA	59	0	1	0	0	0	0
6	MF	Fonseca Danny	07-11-1979	Cartagines	CRC	25	2	2	0	0	1	0
7	MF	Bolanos Christian	17-05-1984	Saprissa	CRC	19	1	2	0	0	0	0
8	MF	Solis Mauricio	13-12-1972	Comunicaciones	GUA	111	6	3	0	0	1	0
9	FW	Wanchope Paulo	31-07-1976	Herediano	CRC	73	47	3	2	0	0	0
10	MF	Centeno Walter	06-10-1974	Saprissa	CRC	97	15	3	0	0	0	0
11	FW	Gomez Ronald	24-01-1975	Saprissa	CRC	84	24	3	1	0	1	0
12	DF	Gonzalez Leonardo	21-11-1980	Herediano	CRC	40	0	3	0	0	1	0
13	FW	Bernard Kurt	08-12-1977	Puntarenas	CRC	4	0	1	0	0	0	0
14	MF	Azofeifa Randall	30-12-1984	Saprissa	CRC	7	0	1	0	0	0	0
15	DF	Wallace Harold	07-09-1975	Alajuelense	CRC	80	1	2	0	0	0	0
16	MF	Hernandez Carlos	09-04-1982	Alajuelense	CRC	19	6	2	0	0	0	0
17	DF	Badilla Gabriel	30-06-1984	Saprissa	CRC	8	0	1	0	0	1	0
18	GK	Porras Jose	08-11-1970	Saprissa	CRC	20	0	3	0	0	0	0
19	FW	Saborio Alvaro	25-03-1982	Saprissa	CRC	25	7	2	0	0	0	0
20	MF	Sequeira Douglas	23-08-1977	Real Salt Lake	USA	32	2	2	0	0	0	0
21	FW	Nunez Victor	15-04-1980	Cartagines	CRC	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	DF	Rodriguez Michael	30-12-1981	Alajuelense	CRC	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
23	GK	Alfaro Wardy	31-12-1977	Alajuelense	CRC	2	0	0	0	0	0	0