San Carlos

San Carlos measure each Primera División season against the afternoon in 2019 when they beat Deportivo Saprissa to the Clausura title on away goals, after two goalless legs turned into a 1-1 draw in the second — still the only top-flight championship the club has won. Staying up matters more now than chasing another one; the drop has caught them before.

The name belongs to Ciudad Quesada, the town in the San Carlos canton of Alajuela province that gave the club its nickname, Los Toros del Norte. It was founded on 9 May 1965, though its roots go back to 1960, when two local amateur sides, El Refugio and El Maravilla, merged into a single regional team.

No other Costa Rican club has won the Segunda División as often — six times between 1965 and 2017-18 — which over the decades has meant five separate promotions back into the top flight. That habit of returning also explains the near misses either side of it: runner-up finishes in the Verano tournaments of 2010 and 2011.

Walter Centeno, who once captained the national team, came back to San Carlos as head coach once his playing days were over; Álvaro Saborío closed his own career there too, returning for one last stint before retiring. Matches against Municipal Pérez Zeledón, sharpened by years of colliding in the same table, draw the biggest crowds the 5,600-seat Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez can hold.

For now, avoiding another trip back down to the second division is the more immediate task.