Costa Rica at the FIFA World Cup

This is a record of Costa Rica's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.^[1]

Costa Rica have qualified for five FIFA World Cup finals, namely in 1990, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018. Their best performance to date was in the 2014 edition, where they reached the quarter-finals.

Record[]

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
1930	Did not enter
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958	Did not qualify
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990	Round of 16	13th	4	2	0	2	4	6
1994	Did not qualify
1998	Did not qualify
2002	Group stage	19th	3	1	1	1	5	6
2006	Group stage	31st	3	0	0	3	3	9
2010	Did not qualify
2014	Quarter-finals	8th	5	2	3	0	5	2
2018	Group stage	29th	3	0	1	2	2	5
2022	To be determined
2026	To be determined
Total	Quarter-finals	5/21	18	5	5	8	19	28

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

FIFA World Cup record by country[]

FIFA World Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Wins	Draws	Losses	Total	Goals scored	Goals conceded
Brazil	0	0	3	3	2	8
China PR	1	0	0	1	2	0
Czechoslovakia	0	0	1	1	1	4
Ecuador	0	0	1	1	0	3
England	0	1	0	1	0	0
Germany	0	0	1	1	2	4
Greece	0	1	0	1	1	1
Italy	1	0	0	1	1	0
Netherlands	0	1	0	1	0	0
Poland	0	0	1	1	1	2
Scotland	1	0	0	1	1	0
Serbia	0	0	1	1	0	1
Sweden	1	0	0	1	2	1
Switzerland	0	1	0	1	2	2
Turkey	0	1	0	1	1	1
Uruguay	1	0	0	1	3	1

Matches[]

1990 FIFA World Cup[]

11 June 1990 Group Stage	Costa Rica	1–0	Scotland	showStadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa
17:00	Cayasso 49'	Report		Attendance: 30,867 Referee: Juan Carlos Loustau (Argentina)

16 June 1990 Group Stage	Brazil	1–0	Costa Rica	showStadio Delle Alpi, Turin
17:00	Müller 33'	Report		Attendance: 58,007 Referee: Neji Jouini (Tunisia)

20 June 1990 Group Stage	Costa Rica	2–1	Sweden	showStadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa
21:00	Flores 75' Medford 88'	Report	Ekström 32'	Attendance: 30,223 Referee: Zoran Petrović (Yugoslavia)

23 June 1990 Round of 16	Czechoslovakia	4–1	Costa Rica	showStadio San Nicola, Bari
21:00	Skuhravý 12', 63', 82' Kubík 75'	Report	González 54'	Attendance: 47,673 Referee: Siegfried Kirschen (East Germany)

2002 FIFA World Cup[]

4 June 2002 Group Stage	Costa Rica	2–0	China PR	showGwangju, South Korea
15:30	Gómez 61' Wright 65'	Report		Stadium: Gwangju World Cup Stadium Attendance: 27,217 Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)

9 June 2002 Group Stage	Costa Rica	1–1	Turkey	showIncheon, South Korea
18:00	Parks 86'	Report	Belözoğlu 56'	Stadium: Incheon Munhak Stadium Attendance: 42,299 Referee: Coffi Codjia (Benin)

13 June 2002 Group Stage	Costa Rica	2–5	Brazil	showSuwon, South Korea
15:30	Wanchope 22' Gómez 56'	Report	Ronaldo 10', 13' Edmílson 38' Rivaldo 62' Júnior 64'	Stadium: Suwon World Cup Stadium Attendance: 38,524 Referee: Gamal Al-Ghandour (Egypt)

2006 FIFA World Cup[]

9 June 2006 Group Stage	Germany	4–2	Costa Rica	showMunich
18:00	Lahm 6' Klose 17', 61' Frings 87'	Report	Wanchope 12', 73'	Stadium: FIFA WM Stadion München Attendance: 66,000 Referee: Horacio Elizondo (Argentina)

15 June 2006 Group Stage	Ecuador	3–0	Costa Rica	showHamburg
15:00	C. Tenorio 8' Delgado 54' Kaviedes 90+2'	Report		Stadium: FIFA WM Stadion Hamburg Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Coffi Codjia (Benin)

20 June 2006 Group Stage	Costa Rica	1–2	Poland	showHanover
16:00	Gómez 25'	Report	Bosacki 33', 65'	Stadium: FIFA WM Stadion Hannover Attendance: 43,000 Referee: Shamsul Maidin (Singapore)

2014 FIFA World Cup[]

14 June 2014 Group Stage	Uruguay	1–3	Costa Rica	showEstádio Castelão, Fortaleza
16:00 UTC−3	Cavani 24' (pen.)	Report	Campbell 54' Duarte 57' Ureña 84'	Attendance: 58,679 Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

20 June 2014 Group Stage	Italy	0–1	Costa Rica	showArena Pernambuco, Recife
13:00 UTC−3		Report	Ruiz 44'	Attendance: 40,285 Referee: Enrique Osses (Chile)

24 June 2014 Group Stage	Costa Rica	0–0	England	showEstádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte
13:00 UTC−3		Report		Attendance: 57,823 Referee: Djamel Haimoudi (Algeria)

29 June 2014 Round of 16	Costa Rica	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–3 p)	Greece	showArena Pernambuco, Recife
17:00	Ruiz 52'	Report	Papastathopoulos 90+1'	Attendance: 41,242 Referee: Ben Williams (Australia)
	Penalties
	Borges Ruiz González Campbell Umaña		Mitroglou Christodoulopoulos Holebas Gekas

5 July 2014 Quarter-finals	Netherlands	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–3 p)	Costa Rica	showArena Fonte Nova, Salvador
17:00		Report		Attendance: 51,179 Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)
	Penalties
	Van Persie Robben Sneijder Kuyt		Borges Ruiz González Bolaños Umaña

2018 FIFA World Cup[]

17 June 2018 Group Stage	Costa Rica	0–1	Serbia	showCosmos Arena, Samara
16:00 UTC+4		Report	Kolarov 56'	Attendance: 41,432 Referee: Malang Diedhiou (Senegal)

22 June 2018 Group Stage	Brazil	2–0	Costa Rica	showKrestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg
15:00 UTC+3	Coutinho 90+1' Neymar 90+7'	Report		Attendance: 64,468 Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)

27 June 2018 Group Stage	Switzerland	2–2	Costa Rica	showNizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod
21:00 UTC+3	Džemaili 31' Drmić 88'	Report	Waston 56' Sommer 90+3' (o.g.)	Attendance: 43,319 Referee: Clément Turpin (France)

Record Players[]

Christian Bolaños, Costa Rica's record World Cup player

No.	Name	Matches	World Cups
1	Christian Bolaños	9	2006, 2014 and 2018
2	Celso Borges	8	2014 and 2018
	Cristian Gamboa	8	2014 and 2018
	Giancarlo González	8	2014 and 2018
	Keylor Navas	8	2014 and 2018
	Bryan Ruiz	8	2014 and 2018
7	Michael Umaña	7	2006 and 2014
7	Joel Campbell	7	2014 and 2018
9	Walter Centeno	6	2002 and 2006
	Rónald Gómez	6	2002 and 2006
	Luis Marín	6	2002 and 2006
	Mauricio Solís	6	2002 and 2006
	Paulo Wanchope	6	2002 and 2006
	Óscar Duarte	6	2014 and 2018
	Yeltsin Tejeda	6	2014 and 2018
	Marco Ureña	6	2014 and 2018

1990 FIFA World Cup squad
2002 FIFA World Cup squad
2006 FIFA World Cup squad
2014 FIFA World Cup squad
2018 FIFA World Cup squad

Top Goalscorers[]

A list of the top goalscorers for Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup.

No.	Name	Goals	World Cup
1	Rónald Gómez	3	2002 (2) and 2006 (1)
1	Paulo Wanchope	3	2002 (1) and 2006 (2)
3	Bryan Ruiz	2	2014
4
	Juan Cayasso	1	1990
	Róger Flores	1	1990
	Rónald González	1	1990
	Hernán Medford	1	1990
	Winston Parks	1	2002
	Mauricio Wright	1	2002
	Joel Campbell	1	2014
	Óscar Duarte	1	2014
	Marco Ureña	1	2014
	Kendall Waston	1	2018

Individual Awards[]

Golden Glove 1990: Luis Gabelo Conejo (shared)

References[]

^ 2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage Archived June 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.

External links[]

FIFA.com – Costa Rica on FIFA.com

[2006coverage-1] 2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage Archived June 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.

[1]

show v t Costa Rica national football team
General	Costa Rican Football Federation History Managers
Venues	Estadio Nacional Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá
Statistics	Results and fixtures Results 2000–09 2010–19 2020–present Honors Competitive records Player records
Team categories	Men's U-23 U-20 U-17 Women's WU-17 Futsal Beach soccer
Notable matches	Aztecazo 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off Snow Clasico
Culture	Facts Kits
Rivalries	El Salvador Honduras Mexico Panama United States
FIFA World Cup	Summary 1990 2002 2006 2014 2018
CONCACAF Gold Cup	Summary 1963 1969 1989
Other tournaments	Copa América Summer Olympics Copa Centroamericana

show v t Countries at the FIFA World Cup
Team appearances All-time table
AFC	Australia² China Indonesia¹ Iran Iraq Japan Kuwait North Korea Qatar Saudi Arabia South Korea United Arab Emirates
CAF	Algeria Angola Cameroon DR Congo¹ Egypt Ghana Ivory Coast Morocco Nigeria Senegal South Africa Togo Tunisia
CONCACAF	Canada Costa Rica Cuba El Salvador Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Panama Trinidad and Tobago United States
CONMEBOL	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay
OFC	New Zealand
UEFA	Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic¹ Denmark East Germany³ England France Germany¹ Greece Hungary Iceland Israel² Italy Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia¹ Scotland Serbia¹ Slovakia¹ Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
¹ Considered a successor team by FIFA, or have competed under another name(s). ² Have been member of multiple confederations. ³ Team and national federation no longer exist.