The final mejenga ("match") of the World Cup is set for Sunday afternoon. While La Sele (Costa Rica's national team) won't be playing, you can still watch the game like a Tico with our handy Spanish guide to football slang in Costa Rica.
With the death of Paul -- the "psychic" octopus who correctly predicted all six of Germany's 2010 World Cup games and the tournament final between the Netherlands and Spain -- sports fans all over the world have been scrambling to find another clairvoyant creature to take his place.
As Costa Ricans obsessively tracked the arrival of their national men's team, La Sele, after its historic run at the 2014 World Cup – many rushing to Juan Santamaría International Airport to catch a glimpse of the players – thousands of visitors to Costa Rica were trying to reach the airport.
Police arrested 17 Tuesday during the celebrations in Paseo Colón, where as many as 200,000 fans converged to welcome home the National Soccer Team, La Sele.
It's been said Brazil has never fully recovered from its greatest sporting tragedy, the 1950 home loss to Uruguay in the World Cup final. Despite proceeding to win a record five global crowns and injecting beauty into the beautiful game, for blessing the sport legends such as Pele, Romario and Ronaldo, Brazil remains haunted by the ghosts of "Maracanazo."
UPDATE: La Sele's flight is delayed by two hours and will arrive at 2:23 p.m., according to La Nación. Today Costa Rica welcomes its history-making World Cup squad back home, and the government has granted most public employees the afternoon off to join in the celebrations. Read all the details here.
Many Costa Ricans and their most fervent fans have been sitting in the eye of a storm for the past few weeks, struck dumb by amazement, watching wide-eyed as accolades all over the world for “the little team that could” have whirled around us in dizzying splendor.
