Costa Rica’s National Football Team, La Sele, on Thursday afternoon will face former World Champion Spain in a friendly match with the aim of improving their play following a defeat by Colombia on Saturday in Argentina. Colombia beat La Sele 1-0.
The Costa Rican squad arrived Wednesday in the community of León, Spain, and had their first practice at the Reino de León Stadium, where they will play at 2 p.m. Costa Rica time.
Tico coach Paulo César Wanchope said following yesterday’s practice that “the boys are recovered and eager to prove themselves.”
Wanchope said improving ball possession is a top priority for today’s match.
“We’ve talked about it, we saw the match’s video and analyzed our actions against Colombia. We need to make it up to the fans, and the idea is to improve in that aspect [possession],” Wanchope said. “It was a complicated match, it was a small field and they kept pressuring our players all over the field. Hopefully we can solve that in this match.”
Spain’s coach Vicente del Bosque said it is a must-win situation in order to build confidence ahead of the qualifying rounds for the 2016 UEFA European Championship.
Costa Rica is preparing for its participation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup next month in the United States.
Watch Coach Wanchope talk about today’s match (in Spanish, courtesy of Fedefútbol):
