Costa Rica’s national soccer team has taken another hit after a rough start to the Concacaf Nations League, dropping six places in FIFA’s live world ranking following back-to-back defeats. La Sele has fallen from 51st to 57th in the live standings after losing 4-3 at home to Curaçao and 2-0 against Haiti in Kingston. The six-place drop is the biggest among teams currently inside the world’s Top 100. Bulgaria has suffered the next-largest fall, dropping five positions.
Even with the slide, Costa Rica remains the fifth-highest ranked team in Concacaf in the live standings. Mexico is 10th in the world, followed by the United States at 16th, Canada at 27th and Panama at 46th. Costa Rica is followed in the region by Honduras at 66th, Jamaica at 71st, Curaçao at 81st, Haiti at 84th and Guatemala at 96th.
The concern for Costa Rica is not simply the ranking itself. La Sele’s cushion over several regional rivals has become smaller, while Curaçao and Haiti have gained ground after beating Costa Rica in the past week. Those losses also cost Fernando “Bocha” Batista his job. Former Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz was brought in as interim coach and will make his debut on the sideline Thursday, October 1, when Costa Rica faces Nicaragua at 8 p.m. at the National Stadium in Managua.
Ruiz does not have much time to change things. After Nicaragua, Costa Rica returns home to face Haiti on Sunday, October 4, at 6 p.m. at Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in San José. Those are La Sele’s final two matches of the Nations League group stage. Costa Rica entered the tournament expecting to compete for one of the top two places in Group A, which also includes Haiti, Curaçao, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic. The top two teams advance to the Nations League quarterfinals, where Mexico, the United States, Canada and Panama are already waiting.
That makes the next few days important for more than Costa Rica’s place in the FIFA table. FIFA rankings can affect how teams are seeded in future competitions and qualifying draws. Falling far enough can leave a country in a more difficult pot and potentially produce tougher opponents later.
For Costa Rica, however, the more immediate problem is this: La Sele simply needs to start winning again. The losses to Curaçao and Haiti turned what was supposed to be a fresh start after the World Cup into another difficult stretch for the national team. Ruiz now gets two matches in four days to try to stop that slide.
