History
Costa Rica has a long-standing football culture and tradition.
The national team made its debut in the Independence Centenary Games held in Guatemala City in September 1921, winning their first game 7–0 against El Salvador. In the final, Costa Rica defeated 6–0 Guatemala to claim the trophy.
The football team of Costa Rica has been characterized above all by its regularity over the years. Well remembered is the selection of this country formed in the late 1940s acquiring the nickname of "The Gold Shorties". Throughout the 50s and 60s, were very much the second strongest team in the CONCACAF zone behind Mexico, finishing runners-up in World Cup qualifying in the 1958, 1962 and 1966 qualifiers. Stars of the side in this period were Ruben Jimenez, Errol Daniels, Leonel Hernandez and Edgar Marin.
However, at the end of the 60s their fortunes would decline as other teams in the region such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago and Canada came to the fore. Although the majority of these participants have had short on points World Cup performances. During the 1970s and most of the 1980s, the Costa Rican team went unnoticed, absent from World Cups. Costa Rica failed to make the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying rounds until the 1986 qualifier. Currently its historical topscorer is Rolando Fonseca with 47 goals.
Read more about this topic: Costa Rica National Football Team
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“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)