Early history 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. Costa Rica's team in the late 1940s acquired the nickname "The Gold Shorties". Throughout the '50s and '60s, they were 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 during this period included Ruben Jimenez, Errol Daniels, Leonel Hernandez and Edgar Marin. However, Costa Rica was not able to utilize this advantage, hence failed to reach any World Cup at that decade. At the end of the 1960s their fortunes declined as Guatemala,
Honduras,
El Salvador,
Haiti,
Trinidad & Tobago and
Canada rose in prominence.
1980s Costa Rica failed to qualify for any of the World Cups in the 1970s and 1980s, and did not reach the final round of the CONCACAF qualifying until the
1986 qualifiers. They participated in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games, in Moscow 1980 and in Los Angeles 1984. In 1980, Costa Rica competed against
Yugoslavia,
Finland and
Iraq in Group D, losing 3–2, 3–0 and 3–0 respectively. In
Los Angeles, the Ticos lost 3–0 against the
United States, and 4–1 against
Egypt, but beat a strong
Italy team, which included
Walter Zenga,
Pietro Vierchowod,
Franco Baresi and
Aldo Serena, 1–0 with a goal by the midfielder
Enrique Rivers.
1990 World Cup Costa Rica won the
1989 CONCACAF Championship to qualify for the finals of a
World Cup for the first time. In the first round of the qualifiers, they beat
Panama 3–1 on aggregate after a 2–0 away victory in the second leg, with goals by
Juan Cayasso and
Hernán Medford. They were drawn against Mexico in the second round, but advanced automatically when their opponents were disqualified for age fraud. Costa Rica started the final qualifying group stage with a home victory and an away defeat against both Guatemala and the United States. They drew 1–1 with Trinidad and Tobago and then beat the same opponents 1–0 at home with a goal by Cayasso. They achieved an important away win, 4–2 against El Salvador at the
Estadio Cuscatlán, with goals from
Carlos Hidalgo, Cayasso and a brace from
Leonidas Flores, before beating El Salvador 1–0 in
San José with a goal from
Pastor Fernández. They finished first in the group table, ahead of the United States on goal difference. Placed in
Group C at the
World Cup finals, Costa Rica began by beating
Scotland 1–0 thanks to another goal by Cayasso. Although they lost to
Brazil by the same score, they came from behind to beat
Sweden 2–1 in their final group match to reach the knockout stages. There, they lost 4–1 to
Czechoslovakia, for whom
Tomáš Skuhravý scored a hat-trick.
2002 World Cup After failing to qualify for the
1994 and
1998 editions of the World Cup, the Ticos placed first in qualification for the
2002 World Cup held in
South Korea and
Japan. During the qualifiers, Costa Rica were coached by Brazilian
Gílson Nunes, and then by the naturalised Brazilian,
Alexandre Guimarães. The first qualifying group stage began with an unexpected 2–1 defeat to
Barbados. After this humiliation, Costa Rica beat the United States 2–1 at the
Ricardo Saprissa Stadium, with goals from
Rolando Fonseca and
Hernán Medford. They then beat Guatemala 2–1 in the
Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, with two goals from
Paulo Wanchope and Barbados 3–0 at the Ricardo Saprissa, with goals from
Jafet Soto, Fonseca and Medford. A draw against the United States and a 2–1 defeat to Guatemala forced Costa Rica into a play-off against Guatemala in
Miami. Costa Rica won 5–2 with two goals from Fonseca and one each from Wanchope,
Reynaldo Parks and
Jafeth Soto. Costa Rica displayed fine attacking form during the final qualifying round, beginning with a 2–2 draw against Honduras at the Ricardo Saprissa, with goals from Fonseca and
Rodrigo Cordero, and a 3–0 defeat of Trinidad and Tobago at the Morera Soto. Their only loss in this round came when the United States beat them 1–0. Costa Rica bounced back with a 2–1 win against Mexico in
Mexico City, a match known as the
Aztecazo, with goals from Fonseca and Medford. Further wins over
Jamaica, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago took Costa Rica to the brink of qualification, which they sealed with an emotional 2–0 win against the United States in the Saprissa, with a brace from Fonseca. In the
finals, Costa Rica were drawn into
Group C with Brazil,
China, and
Turkey. Their campaign started in
Gwangju, where the Ticos beat China 2–0. In their second game against Turkey in
Incheon,
Winston Parks scored an 86th-minute goal to earn a 1–1 draw. Against Brazil, Costa Rica fought back from 3–0 down to 3–2 early in the second half, only to concede two further goals and lose 5–2. With Turkey beating China 3–0, Costa Rica finished behind Turkey on goal difference and were eliminated.
2006 World Cup Costa Rica again managed to qualify for the
World Cup finals in 2006, albeit with difficulties that saw their American coach
Steve Sampson depart after they required away goals to beat
Cuba in the preliminary phase. The Colombian
Jorge Luis Pinto took over for the
next round, which began with a disastrous 5–2 defeat at home against Honduras and a 2–1 loss in Guatemala. Costa Rica recovered with two wins over Canada and a resounding 5–0 triumph over Guatemala, when Wanchope scored a hat-trick and
Carlos Hernández and Fonseca added further goals. Costa Rica advanced to the hexagonal round by winning the group. In the
final round they started with a 2–1 defeat against Mexico at the Saprissa, before beating Panama by the same score, with goals from Wayne Wilson and
Roy Myrie. Pinto was dismissed after a goalless draw with Trinidad and Tobago, and Guimarães returned as coach. His first match ended in a 3–0 defeat to the United States, but wins followed against Guatemala, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Costa Rica decisively beat the United States in the Saprissa, 3–0, with a goal from Wanchope and two from Hernández, to guarantee their third World Cup qualification. On 9 June 2006, Costa Rica played their debut match in
Munich in the opening match of the World Cup against the hosts,
Germany. Wanchope scored to equalise after an early goal from
Philipp Lahm, and later added another, but Costa Rica lost 4–2. They failed to match this encouraging performance in their remaining two games, losing 3–0 against
Ecuador and 2–1 against
Poland in a dead rubber.
2010 World Cup Costa Rica began the
qualifying competition for the
2010 World Cup against
Grenada, winning 5–2 on aggregate (2–2, 3–0). They won all six games played in the next phase, against El Salvador (1–0, 3–1), Haiti (3–1, 2–0) and
Suriname (7–0, 4–1). With two games left in the
Hexagonal round, Costa Rica trailed Honduras by one point in trying to win the third automatic qualification place behind the United States and Mexico. When Honduras lost 3–2 at home to the United States, Costa Rica overtook them with a 4–0 win against Trinidad and Tobago. Needing to win the final match in
Washington, D.C. against the United States to ensure qualification, the Ticos led 2–0 at half-time, but
Jonathan Bornstein scored an injury-time equaliser to draw the match 2–2. Meanwhile, Honduras's 1–0 victory over El Salvador moved them into third place in the group table on goal difference. Costa Rica finished fourth, pushing them into a
play-off with the fifth-placed team from the
CONMEBOL region, Uruguay. The Ticos lost the first leg in San José 1–0, after a goal by
Diego Lugano, and finished with ten men after
Randall Azofeifa was sent off. In the second leg, played at the Estadio Centenario in
Montevideo,
Sebastián Abreu put Uruguay ahead twenty minutes from time, and although
Walter Centeno equalised, the 1–1 draw sent Uruguay to the World Cup finals, 2–1 on aggregate. After failing to qualify, the team began a new era, with the young talent of players such as Azofeifa,
Keylor Navas,
Cristian Bolaños,
Michael Barrantes and
Joel Campbell.
Rónald González was the interim coach before
Ricardo La Volpe was appointed in September 2010. He lasted only ten months before being replaced by the Colombian, Jorge Luis Pinto, in his second spell in charge. During this period, Costa Rica played many friendlies against the top-ranked teams in the world, including the world champion
Spain, most of them in the new national stadium, the
Estadio Nacional, which was opened in 2011.
2014 World Cup The Ticos'
2014 World Cup campaign began with a 2–2 draw against El Salvador in the third round of the
qualifiers. They followed this with a 4–0 win over
Guyana with a hat-trick by
Álvaro Saborío. Two defeats to Mexico put the Ticos one defeat away from elimination, but they resurrected their campaign with a 1–0 win against El Salvador, with the only goal scored by
José Miguel Cubero. They clinched a final round berth with a 7–0 win over Guyana, with goals scored by
Randall Brenes, Saborío,
Cristian Bolaños,
Celso Borges and
Cristian Gamboa. The
fourth round began with a 2–2 draw against Panama. In March, Costa Rica lost 1–0 against the United States in
Denver, and launched an unsuccessful appeal against the match because of inclement weather. Costa Rica again fell 1–0 to the United States in the
Gold Cup that June. Costa Rica then won 2–0 against Jamaica, beat Honduras 1–0 against, drew 0–0 at the
Azteca against Mexico and won at home 2–0 against Panama. In September, they won 3–1 against the United States in San José. On 10 September 2013, Costa Rica drew 1–1 with Jamaica, thanks to a goal from Brenes, to qualify with two games to spare. After a 1–0 loss at Honduras and 2–1 win over Mexico in October, Costa Rica finished second in the table, behind the United States. Costa Rica were drawn in finals Group D against three previous tournament winners –
Italy,
England and Uruguay – and were given odds of 2500–1 to win the tournament. However, they beat Uruguay and Italy and drew 0–0 with England to finish top of the group and qualify for the knockout stage. In the second round, they beat
Greece 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, seeing them through to the quarter-finals for the first time. There, they held the
Netherlands to a 0–0 draw after extra time, before losing 4–3 on penalties. Costa Rica rose 12 places to 16th in the
FIFA World Rankings. Former player
Rónald González cited their long-term progress since 2007 as the reason for their achievement.
2018 World Cup in Russia The Ticos' qualification for the
2018 World Cup started with a bye to the
fourth qualifying round, where they won five games and drew one, winning their group. In the
final round, they finished second behind Mexico to qualify automatically, winning four matches, drawing four and losing two. Costa Rica were drawn in
Group E alongside Brazil, Switzerland and
Serbia. Many key players from 2014 remained in the squad, but they made a disappointing exit at the group stage. Costa Rica lost their first two games, against Serbia and Brazil, without scoring, but drew 2–2 with Switzerland in their last match after equalising in injury time.
2022 World Cup The Ticos' qualification for the
2022 World Cup started with a bye to the final qualifying round. They finished fourth behind the United States to advance to
inter-confederation play-offs winning seven matches, drawing four and losing three. In the inter-confederation play-offs in
Al Rayyan, Qatar, Costa Rica won the match 1–0 against New Zealand and qualified for the World Cup. On November 23, 2022, Costa Rica lost 7–0 against Spain, the biggest World Cup loss since 2010. This match also tied for their worst defeat in professional football with a match against Mexico, which ended with Mexico 7–0 Costa Rica in Mexico City on 17 August 1975. They came back to defeat
Japan in the next game, and after falling behind to
Germany in the first half in the final group stage match, they scored two second half goals against to briefly move into position to advance to the knockout rounds in the live standings. However, Germany scored three late goals and eliminated Costa Rica. For a couple of minutes Costa Rica and Japan were making history, with results that would've eliminated both Spain and Germany, two powerhouses of international football. Nevertheless, Costa Rica were bested by Germany's experience in the international stage.
2026 FIFA World Cup In June 2024, Costa Rica began its
qualifying campaign, against
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada,
Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, winning all 4 games and finishing in first place. Because the tournament was being played at North America, United States, Mexico and Canada qualified automatically as co-hosts, leaving 3 spots for more CONCACAF countries to qualify. In the second round, they were placed in Group C, along with Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. Costa Rica got a draw in its first match 1–1 against Nicaragua, a 3–3 draw at home against Haiti and getting a 0–0 draw against Honduras. Costa Rica had to won all matches remaining if they were to finish first. The "Ticos" got their first win, 4–1 at home against Nicaragua, but at the next match, they got defeated 1–0 against Haiti. By this point, Costa Rica had 6 points, and needed to win against Honduras while hoping Haiti would lose or draw against Nicaragua to finish first. On the final matchday, Nicaragua lost to Haiti 2–0, and the match between Costa Rica and Honduras finished 0–0. With this result, Haiti qualified for the World Cup in the first time since 1974, while both Costa Rica and Honduras were eliminated, this was Costa Rica's first failed qualification campaign since 2010. Shortly after, the
FCRF announced that
Miguel Herrera, the head coach had been sacked for not being able to qualify for the World Cup. The fans were angry with both the players and the coach for not qualifying for the "easiest qualification competition". ==Home stadium==