Costa Rican national soccer coach Guimaraes named 21 players to compete in the Gold Cup but he did not include Paulo Wanchope. Wanchope's absence has not yet been explained by the coach, but speculation in the press was that it was possible "Guima" wanted to get familiar with the performance of other players, since he already knows what the forward would be able to contribute.
Guimaraes has promised an "interesting" roster, and standing out on the list released on Tuesday by the Costa Rican Soccer Federation (Fedefut) on its Web page is the return of Moscow Lokomotiv forward Winston Parks. Parks resigned from the Costa Rican national team while former coach Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto was in charge, but the latter was fired on April 1.
Some younger players also will have a chance to show what they can do, with Guimaraes naming three 21-year-olds to the roster: Saprissa defender Gabriel Badilla and his teammate at midfield Cristian Bolaños, as well as Alajuelense forward Bryan Ruiz. Only 20 players will travel to the United States to play in the Gold Cup, and the final squad list will be made public within a couple of weeks. In the first round of the tourney, Costa Rica will face the United States, Canada and Cuba.
Guimaraes had agreed with the coaches of the country's three main teams on Monday not to select more than five players per club to compete in the Gold Cup tourney next month. He made a statement to that effect after meeting with Saprissa coach Hernan Medford, Alajuelense's Javier Delgado and Herediano's Guillerme Farinha, said Fedefut on its Web page.
"We had a meeting the way it should be. We're soccer people and therefore we came to an agreement easily. There was a very positive spirit at the meeting and, as the representative of the national team, I'm happy with what was agreed to," Guimaraes stated on the Fedefut Internet site.
The coaches agreed that Guimaraes would select five players from Saprissa and four each from Herediano and Alajuelense, as well as members of the other first division squads. Former coach Pinto had come to an earlier agreement with the clubs not to select more than three players from each for the Gold Cup, a promise that Guimaraes said would be "very difficult" to keep. Before the meeting with Guimaraes, the clubs did not want to contribute more than three players each because the Gold Cup competition takes place during the preseason period for the national season.
On the list are the following players:
Goalies: Alvaro Mesen, Jose Francisco Porras and Donny Grant.
Defenders: Harold Wallace, Michael Umaña, Victor Cordero, Mauricio Wright, Gabriel Badilla, Leonardo Gonzalez, Junior Diaz and Carlos Castro.
Midfielders: Jose Luis Lopez, Geiner Segura, Dany Fonseca, Douglas Sequeira, Christian Bolaños, Jafet Soto and Steven Bryce.
Forwards: Oscar Rojas, Winston Parks and Bryan Ruiz.
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