It has been a great week for First Division football clubs from Costa Rica during the current CONCACAF Champions League. The top three clubs as determined by the most recently completed national tournaments are leading their respective groups in a series of matches that could lead them to the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup, which will be hosted by Morocco in December.

 

The current standings for the Costa Rica clubs in the CONCACAF Champions League are:

 

• Deportivo Saprissa leads Group 2 with four points after a shutout victory against Real Esteli from Nicaragua, which is in second place with two points, followed by the Sporting Kansas City of the United States Major Soccer League (MLS) with one point.
• Club Sport Herediano (CSH) leads Group 7 with four points after drawing a challenging match against Leon of Mexico, which also has four points. CSH is currently enjoying a +4 goal advantage, which puts Leon in second place followed by the Asociacion Deportiva Isidro Metapan of El Salvador with no points in the tournament yet. As an interesting aside, CSH is owned by an expatriate businessman from the United States.
• Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) leads Group 6 with four points. LDA took the group lead after a tough match against Chorrillo of Panama, which culminated in a narrow victory for La Liga. Chorrillo is closing in on LDA with three points, and Cruz Azul from Mexico rounds out the group with one point.

 

The ongoing success of the top three Costa Rica football clubs come in the wake of the National Men’s Team historical performance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The Costa Rican Football Federation is certainly pleased to see how the game is developing at the First Division club level since this is where most players who comprise the National Team come from. The next match day for Costa Rica clubs at the “CONCACHAMPIONS” league will be on Thursday, September 18^th, when Saprissa will travel to the Sporting Park in Kansas City while CSH will travel to El Salvador.