The World Cup Russia 2018 will begin in just 2 weeks. The competition, to be held in Russia on this occasion, will be the 21st edition of the world’s maximum team sports event.
FIFA set a deadline for coaches to formalize their teams’ final names. The technicians will have a deadline to deliver the final list of 23 players on June 4th, 10 days before the competition starts. Selections such as Colombia or Mexico have not yet released their list of 23 players, while Argentina and Spain, for example, already defined their 23 members each.
In addition, the 32 teams that will participate in the World Cup had a deadline of May 14th to deliver the pre-selection of players, of which the final 23 will be called. Unlike what was happening until Brazil 2014, FIFA approved that the preliminary roster includes up to 35 players, 5 more than allowed in the last edition.
Costa Rica’s participation
Costa Rica -just as in the previous 1990, 2002, 2006, and 2014 editions- will have an important participation for Russia 2018 as one of the representatives of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associations of Football (CONCACAF). Costa Rica is included in Group E, along with Brazil, Switzerland, and Serbia.
The technician Óscar Ramírez hesitated little and delivered the list of 23 players who will go to the World Cup. In the contingent, 6 MLS players stand out. Only the injuries would change the players. The goalkeeper Keylor Navas heads the list of players from Costa Rica on the way to the 2018 World Cup in Russia:
Goalkeepers. Keylor Navas (Real Madrid-ESP), Leonel Moreira (Herediano), and Patrick Pemberton (Alajuelense).
Defenses. Cristian Gamboa (Celtic-GBR), Ian Smith (Norrkoping-SWE), Ronald Matarrita (New York City-USA), Bryan Oviedo (Sunderland-GBR), Oscar Duarte (Espanyol-ESP), Giancarlo Gonzalez (Bologna-ITA) ), Francisco Calvo (Minnesota United-USA), Kendall Waston (Vancouver Whitecaps-CAN), and Johnny Acosta (Golden Eagles-COL).
Midfielders. David Guzman (Portland Timbers-USA), Yeltsin Tejeda (Lausanne-SWI), Celso Borges (Deportivo La Coruna-ESP), Randall Azofeifa (Herediano), Rodney Wallace (New York City-USA), Bryan Ruiz (Sporting- POR), and Christian Bolaños (Saprissa).
Forwards. Daniel Colindres (Saprissa), Johan Venegas (Saprissa), Joel Campbell (Betis-ESP), and Marco Ureña (Los Angeles FC-USA).
Tico selection’s matches
The Tico selection will start its performance vs. Serbia on Sunday, June 17th, at Samara Arena; Friday, June 22nd, Brazil vs. Costa Rica, at St. Petersburg Stadium; Wednesday, June 27th, Switzerland vs. Costa Rica, at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.
The Phases
On the other hand, the Group Phase will begin on June 14th, 2018, the day that Russia will debut in its World Cup against Saudi Arabia, and end on the 28th of the same month. The Eighth-Finals will start 2 days later and will last for 4 days, from June 30th to July 3rd.
The Quarterfinals will be played between July 6th and 7th. The Semifinals will be on 10th and 11th. This World Cup event will end on July 15th with the Grand Final.
As in every World Cup, one of the attractions of the competition is to see the appearance of the stadiums where the matches are played. Some are already prepared. Others are being reformed when there is less than a year to start the competition. But here you can see the courts where the 2018 World Cup will be played!
These are the schedules of the World Cup venues: Rostov (GMT + 3), Kaliningrad (GMT + 2), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk and Nizhny Novgorod (GMT + 3), Samara (GMT + 4), and Yekaterinburg (GMT + 5).
The 2018 World Cup Final will be played on Sunday, July 15th. The match will be held at the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow, with a capacity for 81,000 people and one of the 12 stadiums in which the tournament will be played.
The 1st FIFA date was set that of November 6th-14th 2017. In that period, it was also a time of repechage in Europe and Latin America. So the question about the preparations and profile of the groups was left for another time. The 2nd -and last FIFA date- was set between March 19th and 27th, 2018.