World Cup: Group E: Costa Rica vs. Serbia, 6/17/2018

[Live in the Now]

Costa Rica

Coach: Óscar Ramírez

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Keylor Navas	15 December 1986 (aged 31)	80	0	Real Madrid
2	DF	Johnny Acosta	21 July 1983 (aged 34)	68	2	Águilas Doradas
3	DF	Giancarlo González	8 February 1988 (aged 30)	69	2	Bologna
4	DF	Ian Smith	6 March 1998 (aged 20)	3	0	Norrköping
5	MF	Celso Borges	27 May 1988 (aged 30)	112	21	Deportivo La Coruña
6	DF	Óscar Duarte	3 June 1989 (aged 29)	38	2	Espanyol
7	MF	Christian Bolaños	17 May 1984 (aged 34)	80	6	Saprissa
8	DF	Bryan Oviedo	18 February 1990 (aged 28)	43	1	Sunderland
9	MF	Daniel Colindres	10 January 1985 (aged 33)	11	0	Saprissa
10	MF	Bryan Ruiz (captain)	18 August 1985 (aged 32)	109	23	Sporting CP
11	FW	Johan Venegas	27 November 1988 (aged 29)	46	10	Saprissa
12	FW	Joel Campbell	26 June 1992 (aged 25)	76	15	Real Betis
13	MF	Rodney Wallace	17 June 1988 (aged 29)	30	4	New York City FC
14	MF	Randall Azofeifa	30 December 1984 (aged 33)	57	3	Herediano
15	DF	Francisco Calvo	8 July 1992 (aged 25)	37	4	Minnesota United
16	DF	Cristian Gamboa	24 October 1989 (aged 28)	67	3	Celtic
17	MF	Yeltsin Tejeda	17 March 1992 (aged 26)	50	0	Lausanne
18	GK	Patrick Pemberton	24 April 1982 (aged 36)	39	0	Alajuelense
19	DF	Kendall Waston	1 January 1988 (aged 30)	26	3	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
20	MF	David Guzmán	18 February 1990 (aged 28)	42	0	Portland Timbers
21	FW	Marco Ureña	5 March 1990 (aged 28)	63	15	Los Angeles FC
22	DF	Rónald Matarrita	9 July 1994 (aged 23)	23	2	New York City FC
23	GK	Leonel Moreira	2 April 1990 (aged 28)	9	0	Herediano

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Serbia

Coach: Mladen Krstajić

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Vladimir Stojković	28 July 1983 (aged 34)	80	0	Partizan
2	DF	Antonio Rukavina	26 January 1984 (aged 34)	46	0	Villarreal
3	DF	Duško Tošić	19 January 1985 (aged 33)	23	1	Beşiktaş
4	MF	Luka Milivojević	7 April 1991 (aged 27)	27	1	Crystal Palace
5	DF	Uroš Spajić	13 February 1993 (aged 25)	5	0	Anderlecht
6	DF	Branislav Ivanović	22 February 1984 (aged 34)	102	12	Zenit Saint Petersburg
7	MF	Andrija Živković	11 July 1996 (aged 21)	10	0	Benfica
8	FW	Aleksandar Prijović	21 April 1990 (aged 28)	8	1	PAOK
9	FW	Aleksandar Mitrović	16 September 1994 (aged 23)	36	13	Fulham
10	MF	Dušan Tadić	20 November 1988 (aged 29)	52	13	Southampton
11	DF	Aleksandar Kolarov (captain)	10 November 1985 (aged 32)	75	10	Roma
12	GK	Predrag Rajković	31 October 1995 (aged 22)	7	0	Maccabi Tel Aviv
13	DF	Miloš Veljković	26 September 1995 (aged 22)	2	0	Werder Bremen
14	DF	Milan Rodić	2 April 1991 (aged 27)	1	0	Red Star Belgrade
15	DF	Nikola Milenković	12 October 1997 (aged 20)	2	0	Fiorentina
16	MF	Marko Grujić	13 April 1996 (aged 22)	7	0	Cardiff City
17	MF	Filip Kostić	1 November 1992 (aged 25)	22	2	Hamburger SV
18	FW	Nemanja Radonjić	15 February 1996 (aged 22)	2	0	Red Star Belgrade
19	FW	Luka Jović	23 December 1997 (aged 20)	1	0	Eintracht Frankfurt
20	MF	Sergej Milinković-Savić	27 February 1995 (aged 23)	3	0	Lazio
21	MF	Nemanja Matić	1 August 1988 (aged 29)	39	2	Manchester United
22	MF	Adem Ljajić	29 September 1991 (aged 26)	28	5	Torino
23	GK	Marko Dmitrović	24 January 1992 (aged 26)	2	0	Eibar

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Serbia, another team with quality, but another team lacking a good #9. Seems like a trend.

Click to read more...

 

[missingmika]

Just saw no Neven Subotic on Serbia. I stopped following him after he rejected the US. Did he just fall off?

 

[Live in the Now]

Just saw no Neven Subotic on Serbia. I stopped following him after he rejected the US. Did he just fall off?

Yeah, after winning trophies with Klopp he blew his knees out.

 

[cgf]

Yeah, after winning trophies with Klopp he blew his knees out.

Seems like a trend.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

More surprised that Fejsa got excluded.

Will keep a close eye on Serbia. Decent potential finishing above the Swiss.

 

[Live in the Now]

Second place in this group could go either way IMO. Each of the teams has different strengths.

Costa Rica's is obviously teamwork, look how many caps those players have, it speaks for itself. They also know how to succeed at the WC and made the QF last time. Their next generation will most likely suffer, it's not like they're getting chances to play here.

Serbia and Switzerland both have huge talent in certain positions. Switzerland's teamwork is better, but Serbia has the really big midfield advantage. I don't know how they intend to play, but SMS, Matic, and Grujic all bring dynamic play as well as being huge. Their wide players are creative but have weaknesses, Ljajic being really explosive and prone to doing dumb shit like getting a red card, Tadic being creative but wanting to have the ball too much, and Zivkovic is super inexperienced.

The Swiss are the incredibly frustrating team of busted mega talent, but they also have tons of experience at this level, and they get results. They still have lots of good talent that isn't yet realized, like Zakaria, Elvedi, and Akanji, but I have no idea if they're going to start.

I don't really know who's going to get second but if forced to pick, I might go with the Costa Ricans. They are so good defensively when needed, and could completely choke off the weak #9's of both teams.

 

[robertmac43]

Hoping Campbell has a good showing, he never got a real chance at Arsenal.

 

[cgf]

Second place in this group could go either way IMO. Each of the teams has different strengths.

Costa Rica's is obviously teamwork, look how many caps those players have, it speaks for itself. They also know how to succeed at the WC and made the QF last time. Their next generation will most likely suffer, it's not like they're getting chances to play here.

Serbia and Switzerland both have huge talent in certain positions. Switzerland's teamwork is better, but Serbia has the really big midfield advantage. I don't know how they intend to play, but SMS, Matic, and Grujic all bring dynamic play as well as being huge. Their wide players are creative but have weaknesses, Ljajic being really explosive and prone to doing dumb **** like getting a red card, Tadic being creative but wanting to have the ball too much, and Zivkovic is super inexperienced.

The Swiss are the incredibly frustrating team of busted mega talent, but they also have tons of experience at this level, and they get results. They still have lots of good talent that isn't yet realized, like Zakaria, Elvedi, and Akanji, but I have no idea if they're going to start.

I don't really know who's going to get second but if forced to pick, I might go with the Costa Ricans. They are so good defensively when needed, and could completely choke off the weak #9's of both teams.

Unfortunately Akanji is the only kid who is expected to start for the swiss. Even Freuler isn't an expected starter. It's gunna be Xhaka, Behrami & another oldie

I think I'm feeling Serbia to take second and maybe even push Brazil in their match if SMS bosses...provided that talent clicks and they keep their shit together.

 

[ViD]

Serbs should easily win this one. SMS with a key assist.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Seeing Ivanovic in starting line-ups still stresses me out to this day

 

[John Price]

Getting irritated at

1) the repetition of American advertising (same ads every commercial break)

2) every game starting off with Seven Nation Army...it also plays after every goal I mean it's a good song but they're WAY overplaying it

 

[TP]

Horrible miss.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Both teams going for it, CRC missed some good chances too

 

[maclean]

Pulling for Serbia here but Costa Rica are such likeable underdogs and I love their kits

 

[robertmac43]

Savic is looking real good, I wonder if he will be with Lazio come the start of next season.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

This is my first time watching SMS, and wowee he isn't disappointing.

Tadic also looks very dangerous.

 

[TP]

onsides. oh, that was close.

 

[robertmac43]

Mitrovic has also looked solid today, man's a beast

 

[maclean]

onsides. oh, that was close.

That would've been a terrible call if that had gone in. Do they use VAR to review things like that?

 

[TP]

That would've been a terrible call if that had gone in. Do they use VAR to review things like that?

Only if the they don't call if off-sides.

 

[Alklha]

Costa Rica are playing very narrow and Serbia aren’t taking advantage. Tadić was really poor with his usage of the ball in good positions.

 

[robertmac43]

"Mitro's on fire, your defense is terrified"......oh wait, maybe not

 

[KrejciMVP]

was checking out World Cup stats and in 2014 a total of 13 PK's were awarded for the tourney. Through the 1st weekend there have been 6 awarded (what pace is that?). The tourney has certainly changed.

 

[Name Nameless]

That was like two yellow cards.

What a goal! :-D

 

[KrejciMVP]

Serbia gets the goal!