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Costa Rica shocked the world two years ago when it got into the quarterfinals of the World Cup. After a disappointing Gold Cup in 2015, Los Ticos will be back on the pitch in a major tournament in Copa America, though their time here might be cut to just three matches thanks to the fact that they were placed in the Group of Death with Colombia and the United States.
You can find great prices on Costa Rica and each of the 16 teams at Copa America by checking out our soccer odds at BookMaker.eu.
COSTA RICA PROFILE
Odds To Win Copa America: +3300
Team Nickname: Los Ticos
Head Coach: Oscar Ramirez
FIFA World Ranking: 25
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Costa Rica was an invitee to Copa America Centenario thanks to the fact that it won the 2014 Copa Centroamericana. That tournament isn't the most illustrious in the world for sure, as it had to beat out Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala to capture the trophy in the seven-team field.
Of late, we've really seen some good play out of the Costa Ricans. They've got some confidence against the United States having beaten it in a match played in Harrison in October, and that was followed up with three victories against Haiti, Panama and Nicaragua. The matches against the Haitians and Panamanians proved to be the first steps towards qualifying for the World Cup, and getting four points from two matches against Jamaica in March all but secured a bid into the last stage of qualification known as the Hexagonal.
KEY PLAYERS
Bryan Ruiz really made a name for himself at the World Cup two years ago. He scored goals in three of Costa Rica's five matches in that tournament, and he finished a crucial spot kick in penalties against Greece in the Round of 16. Ruiz now has 21 goals in 87 games for his country, and he'll be joining veteran Alvaro Saborio at the top of the formation for Los Ticos.
The real power of the Costa Ricans though, comes at the back. Junior Diaz, Roy Miller, Giancarlo Gonzalez, Cristian Gamboa, Johnny Acosta and Oscar Duarte have combined to appear over 300 times for Costa Rica, and of these six, five will likely be on the pitch at any given time for a team which consistently believes in parking the bus and trying to score on the counterattack against the best teams in the world.
It all boils down to the play of Keylor Navas, though. Navas took over as the full-time goalie for Real Madrid this season and has really been fantastic, particularly in the Champions League. Any time you can count on one of the best goalies in the world on your national side, you have to take advantage of him, and Costa Rica will only have success if it can find a way to keep Navas out of trouble.
COPA AMERICA ODDS ANALYSIS AND QUICK PICK
In any other group, Costa Rica probably would've been considered amongst the favorites to qualify for the quarterfinals, but we just don't see it in Group A. The ceiling is five points in the three matches. That would probably end up being good enough when push comes to shove, but it's a tough road to sow to get there.
We could also see a situation where the offense just doesn't get anything going against Paraguay in the first match on June 4 and then falls flat against the USA and is effectively eliminated before taking on Colombia in the finale as well.
In all likelihood, the results will probably come out somewhere in the middle, and that isn't going to cut it to advance out of the group stage.
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