Melbourne Victory are banking on a Costa Rican-led revival in the upcoming Hyundai A-League season after unveiling their newest signing Jose Luis Lopez on Monday.
Lopez, a defensive midfielder from Costa Rica's premier club Deportivo Saprissa, will link-up with national team-mate Carlos Hernandez and the new man is confident they can provide Victory with an edge coming into the season.
"I have great expectations. My football fits in well here, with the philosophy of Ernie (Merrick). Carlos told me a lot of great things about the players and the systems they use. The supporters are supposed to be great too," Lopez, who speaks English as well as several other languages, said.
Merrick travelled to the Central American nation in May to watch Lopez in action for Saprissa and was impressed enough to offer him a two-year contract.
"He's a top quality professional player. He's impressed the Costa Rican national team since playing in the Under 20s, captaining the Olympic team. He plays for Saprissa, who have been the champions four of the past five years. He played in the world club championships," Merrick said.
"We really need a holding midfielder. A no frills type of player, ball winning, passing type of player out of the middle and Jose Luis fills that spot just perfectly."
The player himself can't wait to link up with Hernandez, who is currently sidelined with a quad injury and said they are very familiar with each other having played at national level since they were teenagers when they represented their country at the 2003 Under-20 World Cup in Argentina.
In that tournament, Costa Rica stormed through the group stage with wins over Ethiopia, the Netherlands and Ecuador, only to lose to the Czech Republic in the second round.
"He's a very smart boy," Lopez said of Hernandez. "He adapts very easy to different circumstances. He has been my friend since I've been in the Under 20s. We have a great friendship and he makes things easier for me."
"We did a great thing in the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina. I know what his skills and weaknesses are. He knows mine. It fits very well. I know what he likes, where he likes the ball. I've known him for eight years," he said.
Having played for rival clubs in their homeland as defensive and attacking midfielders respectively, Lopez and Hernandez have also had plenty of experience playing against one another.
"I marked Carlos out of the game when I played for Saprissa," he joked.
He said that Hernandez was not the only reason he has come to Australia and said the better training facilities and stadiums will make it easier for him to realise his potential.
"You have great stadiums here. That makes the football look better. We have lots of talent in Costa Rica. We have a lot of skills, but we don't have the facilities. I think it's great to play here with the facilities here," he said.
That's something that Merrick agrees with. The Victory coach was a little taken aback by the 'rustic' facilities in San Jose, but said the standard of football is very good.
"I saw the finals teams and I thought the standard was as good, if not better than, the A-League. I think he's being very modest. I'd say the Costa Rican standard of the two or three top teams is very good. Saprissa finished third in the world club championships behind Sao Paulo and Liverpool," he said.