Photo above courtesy of Fox Sports (Guillen is #2)
Soccer has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons as of late. Whether it’s the controversy surrounding the potentially unsafe playing surfaces for 2015 World Cup in Canada, or the corruption charges that led to the arrests and indictments of 14 high-ranking members of the International Federation of Football Associations, including the resignation of the organization’s president Sepp Blatter, who had been in the role since 1988.
However, don’t expect all of that negative attention surrounding the sport to prevent 23-year-old Costa Rican defender Gaby Guillen from enjoying a historic moment with her teammates on Tuesday. Guillen was a defender/midfielder for the Creighton Bluejays women’s soccer team from 2009 until 2012 when she graduated, and on Tuesday, June 9, she and the Costa Rica Women’s National Team will make history with their first World Cup appearance. Their debut will come against Spain at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
“It is truly a dream come true,” Guillen said. “With this World Cup being the highest you can get besides U17 and U20 it feels like the cycle is completed.”
Guillen was also a member of the first Costa Rican Women’s National Team to make it to the Under-17 Women’s World Cup when the ticas, as they are referred to in Costa Rica, did so in 2008 in New Zealand. She was also on the first team to reach the Under-20 Women’s World Cup back in 2010 in Germany. She along with five other players — defenders Daniela Cruz and Fabiola Sanchez, midfielder Katherine Alvarado, and forwards Carolina Venegas and Raquel Rodriguez Cedeno — have been on each of the history-making national teams, and those six will be together again on Tuesday against Spain.
Costa Rica’s road to the 2015 Women’s World Cup was paved in October during the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship. Needing at least a fourth-place finish to keep their hopes of reaching the World Cup alive, Costa Rica put the world on notice by upsetting Mexico, 1-0, in the tournament opener on October 16 at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas. The victory not only sent a message to the rest of the teams in the tournament, but it also gave Costa Rica a new level of confidence going forward.
“The result vs Mexico bumped our confidence up so much. It made us believe in ourselves,” Guillen said. “I think it was the first time in these kind of tournaments that we felt this confident.”
They followed up that performance with a 2-1 win against Jamaica on October 18 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois, and a 6-1 thrashing of Martinique on October 21 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., to clinch a spot in the semifinals. Needing just one win in either of their next two matches to clinch their country’s first World Cup bid, they got the monkey off their back the first chance they got in their semifinal match on October 24 at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, against Trinidad & Tobago.
“Before that game, we were very excited with all the results we had prior,” said the 23-year-old San Jose native. “We were undefeated and that gave us such confidence ahead. The dream was so close.”
After allowing a game-tying goal in the 73rd minute, the two teams went to penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 draw. Costa Rica made quick work of Trinidad & Tobago there, scoring on each of their first three attempts while goalkeeper Dinnia Diaz stopped all three shots on her end to kickoff a wild celebration.
“When Dinnia stopped that last penalty while we knelt down on the middle of the field, I just remember getting up and running as fast as I could towards her and making a huge dog pile,” Guillen recalled. “We all laughed and cried at the same time. It was an awesome feeling. After so many years trying to accomplish it, we had made it.”
Guillen was a Creighton Women’s Soccer player from 2009-2012 (first row bottom right) (Streur/WBR)
Costa Rica fell against the United States in the CONCACAF Championship behind a four-goal effort from American superstar Abby Wambach, but the Costa Ricans had already accomplished what they set out to do.
After playing some friendly matches last week against Colombia in Denver, Colorado to prepare for the World Cup, the team finally traveled to Canada on Friday. Though they are anxious to play their first match, it hasn’t been easy to prepare for the opportunity. Most teams don’t have any trouble finding sponsors to provide them with top of the line equipment to help them train and play, but since they don’t receive a salary from any of their soccer-related activities, Guillen and some of her Costa Rican teammates have to use their own hard-earned money to provide all the things they need outside of the food and travel expenses that are provided for them.
Some members of the team set up a GoFund page to help raise money towards the end of the spring, but they were instructed to take it down after being informed that were not allowed to raise funds for their equipment in that manner or else it would cause problems with their federation.
Those struggles have only helped to create a sort of chip on the collective shoulder of Guillen and her teammates. Having to earn their way to Canada every step of the way has been met with the expectation that many pundits expect this to be an unsuccessful and brief trip to the World Cup for Costa Rica. Ranked 37th in the world, the Costa Ricans will face 14th-ranked Spain in their opening match, take on 18th-ranked Korea Republic on June 13, and wrapping up the Group Stage against 7th-ranked Brazil. Despite the predictions of their quick exit, Guillen and her teammates are embracing the challenge.
“Being part of the Costa Rican team is a dream come true, we all get along pretty well and we are a family more than a team,” Guillen said. “We all look out for each other and I would not trade that.”
“We are a bit under the radar. Not very many people expect great things from us. However, we know how much we have sacrificed and the effort each of us has put in so we can be here. We will give our best and try to do as our coach says, and we all hope we can do well and go on to the [knockout stage].”
The historical significance of Guillen’s accomplishments so far stretch all the way back to Omaha, Nebraska. Not only is she a member of each of the first World Cup teams in the history of the Costa Rican Women’s National Team, but she is also the first player from Creighton’s rich soccer history to reach the World Cup. With 10 caps from international play in her career already, the opportunity to continue to represent the Bluejays along with Costa Rica is not lost on Guillen. She always looks back on her time on the hilltop with gratitude for the experience she was given on the pitch and in the classroom.
On Tuesday afternoon when she takes to the hard turf against Spain at Olympic Stadium with the cleats and equipment she bought with her own money, she will play for her friends, her loved ones, her country, and her Creighton family.
For as she put it, “once a Jay, always a Jay.”
All three of Costa Rica’s scheduled games during the Group Stage will be televised. Their 2015 World Cup opener on Tuesday, June 9 vs Spain is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (CT) on Fox Sports 1. Her next game on Saturday, June 13 vs Korea Republic is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (CT) on Fox Sports 2, and the third game, on Wednesday, June 17 vs Brazil is set for a 6:00 p.m. (CT) kickoff on Fox Sports 1.