Photo: JOSE CORDERO / Getty Images
By: EFE Posted Jun 23, 2023, 11:35am EDT
The Costa Rican team reaches the CONCACAF Gold Cup with a bad run of resultswith players at a low level while their coach, Colombian Luis Fernando Suárez is the target of criticism from the press.
The defeats against Guatemala by 1-0 a week ago, and Ecuador by 3-1 last Tuesday in two friendly matches, questions about the team’s performance have intensified, but doubts have also increased with a view to the tournament that will begin next Saturday.
Costa Rica will debut next Monday with Panama. Then it will be measured with El Salvador and then with Martinique.
The sports press agrees that the position of Luis Fernando Suárez will be at stake in the Gold Cup, despite the fact that before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Costa Rican Football Federation (FCRF) renewed his contract for four years.
Criticism of Suárez, who this month celebrates two years in office and who registers a performance of 56% come from the 2022 World Cup qualifiersbut they subsided with the classification in a long-suffering play-off with New Zealand.
However, the 7-0 win against Spainthe worst result for Costa Rica in the history of the world championships, and the another 4-2 win against GermanyThey revived the accusations.
The 1-0 win over Japan served to make up the elimination in the group stage.
In his two years in office, Suárez has summoned more than 100 footballers and another criticism from the press is that he has not managed to consolidate a base team or an idea of the gameand that Costa Rica is a team that generates very few scoring chances.
2023 has been a negative year for the Costa Rican team, since it was eliminated by Panama in the group stage of the League of Nations.
In that contest, Panama won both group matches against Costa Rica, including his first victory in San José in an official match in history.
For the Gold Cup, a tournament that the Ticos have never won and that only once reached the final, in 2002, Suárez summoned a group of young soccer players in a mix with soccer players with experience in World Cupsbut with the absence due to injury of the French PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
The experienced base is made up of the defenders Kendall Waston, Francisco Calvo, Juan Pablo Vargas and Keysher Fuller; the midfielder Celso Borges and striker Joel Campbell.
The youngsters called to command the team’s attack are the extremes Carlos Mora and Josimar Alcocer, the ’10’ Aaron Suárez, and the center forwards Anthony Contreras and Warren Madrigal.
In the matches prior to the Gold Cup, a weak selection in defense and midfield has been noted, and with little clarity to go on attack.
“I am convinced that the team’s situation will be different in the Gold Cup”affirmed coach Suárez after the 3-1 defeat against Ecuador, a game in which he regretted that “he had never seen such a passive Costa Rica.”
Keep reading:
· Mexico and the United States lost dominance: Costa Rica and Honduras have the two best clubs in Concacaf
Hard blow to Concacaf: Japan humiliated El Salvador in Asian lands
· Diego Cocca raised the white flag before the Mexican Football Federation