The Costa Rican national team traveled to Doha on Monday with its main figures to play the playoff against New Zealand on June 14, in which the last pass to the Qatar 2022 World Cup will be at stake.
A caravan of vehicles and motorcycles and numerous people on the side of the road accompanied the bus that transported the team from the facilities of the Costa Rican Soccer Federation to the Juan Santamaría international airport. The team left for Miami and there will take a direct flight to Doha.
“We are very excited about the farewell of the people who were waiting for us and we are motivated by this. This motivates us to go with much more force and rest assured that we are going to leave everything on the field and fight for that classification,” he said. defender Oscar Duarte upon arrival at the airport.
The Costa Rican team, led by Colombian coach Luis Fernando Suárez, left Costa Rica with 21 players and in Qatar the French PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas, the greatest Costa Rican figure, will join the group.
The defender of the Colombian Millionaires Juan Pablo Vargas, who must comply with a few days of isolation in Costa Rica after testing positive for covid-19, is in doubt. The soccer player will undergo tests during this week to determine if he can finally make the trip.
At the moment, Costa Rica does not have any other notable casualties in its squad, which is made up of 6 soccer players who play in international leagues, including goalkeeper Navas, Mexican Monterrey striker Joel Campbell, and Spanish Levante defender Oscar Duarte.
On the list are players with extensive experience who are part of a generation seeking their third World Cup in a row. Those footballers are Keylor Navas, Joel Campbell, Francisco Calvo, Oscar Duarte, Celso Borges, Yeltsin Tejeda and Bryan Ruiz, who are joined by a series of young players who make their first games with the national team but who were high points during the tie such as midfielder Brandon Aguilera and forward Anthony Contreras.
Costa Rica is in search of its sixth World Cup after participating in Italy 90, South Korea and Japan 2002, Germany 2006, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. To achieve this, they must defeat New Zealand in the single-match playoff that will be played on June 14 in Qatar and that will provide the last available ticket to Qatar 2022.
EFE
