Part 6 of 32: The Costa Rican Interview
For part 6 of the series, I caught up with Marvin Zumbado. At 23, Marvin is studying computer engeneering and will complete his graduation next year, His favourite soccer team is Saprissa, Currently, he works for an American horse racing company. Marvin is deeply passionate about football, music and extreme sports.
I thank Marvin for agreeing to the interview.
Tell us a bit about Costa Rica’s football history and the football culture which exists.
Costa Rica is a definitely a soccer country, our life is surrounded by soccer, we have a very competitive local league and we get lots of international games in TV everyday. You can find a soccer game everywhere you go, every town has it’s own soccer field and team, you can also find kids playing soccer in every neighborhood, a soccer game can paralyze my country and it has done it a few times in the past.
Costa Rica has qualified for 2 World Cups, the first was in Italy 1990, where we amazingly won our opening game vs Scotland 1-0, then we lost to brazil 1-0, and in the 3rd game of the group stage we defeated Sweden 2-1 and made it to the second round, where we played Czechoslovaqia and got spanked 4-1. Our second WC appereance was 4 years ago in Korea/Japan 2002, we finished with a 1-1-1 record, after a 2-0 win over China , a 1-1 draw with turkey and a 5-2 loss with Brazil.
Turkey advanced over us due to goal difference, eventually Brazil won the cup and Turkey finished 3rd. We have also played in most of the Concacaf Gold cups and also in a few Conmebol America’c cup, also our U23 teams has played a couple of times in the Olympic Games.
Tell us a bit about the Road to the World Cup – the qualification, and the emotions the fans went through at the time.
One word can summarize this WCQ: suffering. Our road to Germany started eliminating Cuba in away goals after a 3-3 score in a 2-game series, we were playing horrible and our coach Steve Sampson got fired and replaced with the Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto, then we got seeded in the “death” group of the Concacaf WCQ draw, we were with Guatemala, Honduras and Canada, we lost our first game at home with an awful 2-5 vs Honduras, then we lost our next game at Guatemala, we had 0 points and -4 in the first 2 games, then we defeated Canada twice and destroyed Guatemala 5-0 at home, and finally got a 0-0 draw at Honduras in the last matchday and advanced to the final HEX.
In the final round, 3.5 out 6 teams were supposed to qualify to the WC, we started losing 1-2 at home vs Mexico , paying them back the 1-2 win we got in Azteca’s stadium back in 2001, we were playing horrible again, so Pinto got fired and changed for Alexandre Guimaraes in the middle of the hexagonal, a brazilian born Costarican who played in 1990 and coached our team in 2002, everything changed with him, we started to win games and get some points in the road, Mexico and the US qualified pretty easy, we clinched that 3rd qualifing spot beating the US 3-0 at Saprissa’s stadium and lost the last game at guatemala
The whole country went to the streets to celebrate that night we qualifed, everybody believed in our team again, we were happy after all that suffering we had.
What style of football does the national team play?
Back in 2002, we were called as a little brazil, we have an offensive mentallity, we have fast and creative guys in the wings and tall center forwards, we have a solid defence lead by the international gilberto martinez from Brescia, Italy, we might use the counterattack technique against germany, we gotta used the crowd pressure against them. In 2002 we lost 2-5 vs Brazil, but that score does not reflect how the game was, that could have been one of our best games in history, but Brazil is Brazil and we paid for our mistakes.
What do you think your country’s prospects are?
We were ranked 3rd from bottom to top by the odds/betting companies, I definitly think we got underrated, I believe that 4 points would be the less we can make, nobody expect us to qualify to the second round, but i do believe we can advance over Poland and Ecuador, maybe not over the host Germany, but we can make that 2nd spot ours.
Who will be the most important player for your country ?
I’ll give you 3 names, Our goalkeeper Jose Francisco Porras can be remembered forever as our 1990 GK Gabelo conejo, we need a solid goalie to give confidence to the rest of the players. My second name is Paulo Cesar Wanchope, our most experienced player, a forward that has scored more than 60 goals in the English Premiership and already scored in a WC, his has skills and good luck. We need both. My 3rd name is Cristian Bolanos a 21 year old right wing that is able to change games, a perfect substitution.
Which player in your country’s side would you most like to get rid of?
His name is Mauricio Solis. He used to be our starting defensive midfielder, and he was great, 4 years ago. Mow he needs to give his spot to a fresh and younger player as Carlos Hernandez or Danny Fonseca.
Who are the players to watch from the other countries?
Germany and Poland have very skillfull, big and tall players, definitely we gotta watch for Ballack, one of the best midfielders of the world. Ecuador might not have a big star, but we gotta watch for their whole team.
What will be your excuse in the event of failure?
It would be the lack of friendly games, we have only had a few of them and only one more confirmed before the World Cup vs Czech Republic.
Have you got the right manager?
Yes we do, Guima came back to our team as the savior, he has most of the crowd support.
What advice would you give him?
I’ll tell him to use Carlos Hernandez instead of Mauricio Solis. Also to use Bolanos as a substitute not a starter and maybe to use Saborio in the first game versus the Germans in the first half. He is tall and stronger than Wanchope
Which team do you most want to beat?
I’ll love to beat brazil and mexico in a quarter final. Beating Germany in the opening game would also be great.
Which opposition player will get the most stick?
Michael Ballack.
Where will you watch the matches?
I don’t know yet, the first game is on June 9th which is my birthday too, so a huge party is waiting for me, i might have to watch the other 2 games at school or at work.
How keenly will the World Cup be followed in your country?
The whole country will be paralyzed, public employees will get half day off to watch the games, as it happened in 1990, if we win, the whole country will go crazy, if we lose the whole country will be in complete silence.
Who will be the player of the tournament?
I can not name only one, I’ll say Shevchenko, Ballack, Robben, Nedved and Ronaldinho.
Who will win the Golden Boot?
Shevchenko
Which team will disappoint the most?
USA and Italy, they are in a very dangerous group, Czech Rep and Ghana will advance over them. I also don’t expect anything good from Spain, Argentina, cote d’ Ivore.
Who will be the surprise team of the tournament ?
There is always an African team surprising the world in every cup. It could be Togo or Angola. Australia have a nice team and their group is not impossible, but the real cinderella could be Ukraine, because they are in their first World Cup and they are lead by a great and experienced player.
Finally, Who will win the World Cup?
It’s impossible to say, most of the people say Brazil, but i expect a first-time winner like Holland, Czech Republic or Ukraine.
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I hope you enjoyed part 6. Follow up questions for Marvin can be emailed to me at pratyushkhaitan[@]gmail[.]com Also, feel free to contact me if you would like to be interviewed or know a friend who would like/could be interviewed. Specific questions for specific countries which might pop in your mind in due course may also be sent. Coming up next is the interview from Trinidad and Tobago.
For the rest of the interviews, check out the World Cup interview series page.
Tags: Costa Rica Football, FIFA World Cup 2006, Football Interview Series.
