Costa Rica Soccer Madness – Germany Scores 4 Against Costa Rica’s 2 in the World Cup

Forget Christmas! Forget Mother’s Day! June 9th is probably the most important day in the Costa Rica calendar this year.

At 10am on Friday, June 9th 2006 is when the Costa Rica soccer team will play the opening game against Germany in the 2006 World Cup tournament.

This is big! And practically every advertising campaign for just about any product or service at the moment in Costa Rica features something to do with the World Cup.

Costa Rica is the only team from Central America to qualify for the World Cup and has big hopes of doing at least as well as they did in the 1990 World Cup when Costa Rica beat Scotland and Sweden and advanced to the second round, where it was eliminated by Czechoslovakia.

Costa Rica Team Not Starting Well:

• Unfortunately, so far in the ‘friendly’ games, Costa Rica has not done too well. “Two weeks before our opening match with Germany, the national team looked terrible against Catalonia,” the daily newspaper La Nacion said. Costa Rica lost 2-0.
• And unfortunately the headline about the Ukraine match says it all – “Ukraine pounds Costa Rica in World Cup tune up.” Costa Rica lost 4-0

With Germany beating Luxemburg 7-0 in their ‘friendly’ game, the Costa Rican fans must be just a bit fearful about how they will perform on the 9th June..

The Costa Rican World Cup Soccer Team:

Goalkeepers: Wardy Alfaro, Alvaro Mesen, Jose Francisco Porras

Defenders: Gabriel Badilla, Jervis Drummond, Leonardo Gonzalez, Luis Marin, Gilberto Martinez, Michael Rodriguez, Michael Umana, Harold Wallace

Midfielders: Randall Azofeifa, Cristian Bolanos, Walter Centeno, Dany Fonseca, Carlos Hernandez, Douglas Sequeira, Mauricio Solis

Forwards: Victor Nunez, Ronald Gomez, Kurt Bernard, Alvaro Saborio, Paulo Wanchope

Coach: Alexandre Guimaraes

For those of you interested in more biographical details of the players, you can see the 23 members of the Costa Rican soccer team here.

5,000+ Ticos Travelling To Germany to See the Game:

According to the CIA the per capita income for Costa Rica in 2005 was US$10,100 which makes you wonder how more than 5,000 Ticos have been able to find enough money to travel to Germany to see their team play.

This World Cup has even forced the Costa Rica banks to dramatically increase their supply of Euros in the local banks so that the fans can get their hands on enough cash for their journey.

Costa Rica Government Employees Get Half Day Off:

Most public employees have been given a half-day holiday however, to imagine that they will return to work after the game, the interviews and entertainment is finished at around midday is a teeny weeny bit optimistic methinks. Especially since many government employees start work early and sometimes finish at 3pm anyway

Costa Rica School Kids Get To Watch The Game Too:

As for the schools in Costa Rica, believe it or not, they decided to swap the April 17th public holiday and have June 9th off instead so that they too can watch the game. Unfortunately, I think it will be a sad day for Costa Rica.

The second game that Costa Rica plays is on June 15th and school will begin at 1030am after the 7am game is over. The third game is on June 20th and again, the school day will begin after the 8am game is over.

For those Costa Rican soccer fanatics out there, you can read the Costa Rica World Cup Team Blog here.

Update: Although Costa Rica put up a truly valiant effort in a very exciting game, Germany ended up scoring 4 goals against Costa Rica whjo scored 2.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.