Costa Rica’s male national soccer team “La Sele” will have an exhibition game against Russia’s national soccer team this Sunday, October 9th at 7 a.m. Costa Rica time, the game takes place at Krasnodar, Russia.

All players of La Sele are in Russia since yesterday and have been training in preparation for this game that serves as a practice for the team as they will enter the fifth round or hexagonal of the Russia 2018 World Cup Qualification in November 11th against Trinidad & Tobago and November 15th against the U.S.A.

Costa Rica’s goalkeeper Kaylor Navas joined the training of La Sele on Tuesday after being absent of the main lineup of the national team for several games being that he underwent ankle surgery, he is fully recovered now and is expected to play on Sunday, the only players that were not able to attend due to injuries are: Christian Bolaños (who plays with the Vancouver Whitecaps) and Oscar Duarte (Espanyol). Right back Cristian Gamboa (Celtic) will miss the game as he is expecting the birth of his second son.

Russia’s line up will be missing several of their key players, including their goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev who is injured.

Since Russia is the host of the World Cup 2018, this game is also an opportunity to get familiar with the country, Krasnodar will not be part of the World Cup locations but it may have the right conditions to provide accommodation to the National Team. In Brazil’s world cup 2014, La Sele stayed in Santos, a place that was not part of the locations of the World Cup. “When it comes to picking the place where we will establish our camp, it is more important to see how much interest there is in receiving the team and providing a good level of service and attention” said Rafael Vargas, general secretary of the Football Federation (Fedefutbol) to local paper La Nacion.