Bryan Ruiz often came to the rescue of the Costa Rica national team as a player. Now, he's being asked to do it as the coach.
The former Fulham and Sporting Lisbon midfielder was tabbed as the interim manager of the struggling Ticos, replacing Argentina manager Fernando "Bocha" Batista midway through the September-October window.
Bautista leaves after just six matches in charge, none of them victories. This month brought the first official matches of Bautista's tenure. Costa Rica led Curacao 3-0 at home in its first 2026-27 Concacaf Nations League contest but conceded four unanswered to the Caribbean side in the second half and lost the match.
That put the pressure on for a neutral-site game against Haiti on Sunday, Sept. 27, but Les Grenadiers
dominated the game and Costa Rica fell 2-0.
It was enough for Costa Rica's directors to give Batista his marching orders and see if the 41-year-old Ruiz can turn thigns around.
"The (Costa Rican federation) communicates that Mr. Fernando Batista and his coaching staff will not continue leading the senior men's national team," a statement read. "We thank them and wish them the best of success in their future projects."
Ruiz might be getting used to being an interim boss. Ruiz is currently working as a coach of the second team for Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, the club where he started and finished his playing career. But Ruiz and two other club legends, Javier Delgado and Wilmer Lopez, formed an interim trio for a pair of matches.
Both of those games, a Copa Centroamericana second leg with Marathon and a league game against Inter San Carlos, resulted in convincing wins.
Now, Ruiz will hope to convince for the national team, first in an Oct. 1 visit to Nicaragua and then with another visit from Haiti, a team that now has avoided defeat against Costa Rica in the last six meetings.
The poor start in the Nations League puts Costa Rica at risk not only of going down to League B in the next edition of the competition but also in danger of missing the 2027 Gold Cup.
The bottom two teams in the League A group will have to meet a League C team in a play-in for the right to go into the preliminary round of the continental championship. Three teams in Costa Rica's six-team group already have six points.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Costa Rica fires Batista, names Bryan Ruiz interim national team coach
