Valverde: Costa Rica’s national pride makes the team’s heart beat
Costa Rica coach Amelia Valverde tells FIFA how she’s approaching her second World Cup and why football is a game that can’t be fooled.
Valverde has coached Costa Rica since 2015, taking over when in her 20s
She opens up on team's ambitions at Australia & New Zealand 2023
Costa Rica drawn in World Cup group with Japan, Spain and Zambia
Amelia Valverde has grown alongside the Costa Rica women’s national team. Now 36, Valverde was appointed as coach in early 2015 and led the nation into its first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup™ later that year.
It was good tournament for Costa Rica, drawing with Spain and South Korea and narrowly missing out on moving into the knockout round when Raquel scored an 83rd-minute winner for Brazil in the third match. Valverde’s squad, however, ultimately wasn’t able to build on those impressive performances, falling to eventual qualifiers Jamaica and Canada in qualification for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™
But Costa Rica are back, with Valverde helping engineer a 3-0 win against Panama and a 4-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on the way to progressing through the group phase at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship. While they were beaten by USA in the semi-finals, that last-four finish ensured automatic World Cup qualification for Las Ticas.
Now, as the tournament approaches, Valverde hopes both the lessons from competing at Canada 2015 and the frustration of missing out four years later will stay with the team as they prepare for a second Women’s World Cup appearance.
Football has shaped me as a person. It’s taught me to be loyal. Sport is discipline, respect, loyalty, it’s very hard work and that’s helped me become a better coach.
I strongly believe what you give to football, football will give back to you at some point. You can fool many people in life, but you can’t fool football. Football knows it, and at some point it will reward your work. Sooner or later, people who work hard are rewarded.
What makes this team’s heart beat is the love for its country. I have no doubts about that. If you were to write the story of these girls, the material you could find would be impressive. The national team has been absolutely loyal to its country, to its shirt and to its emblems.
Personally, this national team always teaches me something new, it pushes me to improve. When facing adversity, the players have always remained close-knit. For us, no matter the external circumstances, the results, people’s comments or anything else, we value the players' efforts and who they are as individuals above their role as footballers.
It certainly affected us. Maybe we can’t put it into words or quantify its significance but, for example, in Canada’s case, qualifying opened doors for many of their players to play abroad. Since we didn’t qualify, that didn’t happen for us. It limited us from having many benefits. Let’s hope this World Cup is positive for our country.
The [2015] World Cup has a special chapter in my heart, because it was my first official tournament as coach of the national team. It’s special because of what we accomplished and because of how meaningful it was for the girls.
The qualifiers for the World Cup in Australia & New Zealand [were special], too. In the Concacaf W Championship, we first played against Panama. This was a very important match. It was key. I'd dare say that we qualified because we won that match. We started off on the right foot.
A successful World Cup for Costa Rica would be for the team to be competitive in the tournament. If Costa Rica is competitive, even considering the level of opponents we’re facing, we’ll stand a chance.
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