Uruguay tops Costa Rica 1-0 in first leg of World Cup playoff

November 16, 2009

Uruguay damaged Costa Rica’s hopes of qualifying for a third straight World Cup, scoring a first-half goal and holding off the 10-man Ticos 1-0 Saturday night in the first leg of their inter-confederation playoff.

Diego Lugano capitalized from the second chance off the same corner in the 22nd minute and Uruguay will return home on Wednesday for the second leg with a clear advantage.

Randall Azofeifa all but sealed Costa Rica’s fate in the 53rd minute, arriving late for a challenge on Alvaro Fernandez, tripping him with a lunging left leg and drawing his second yellow card from Spanish referee Alberto Undiano.

Costa Rica, playing without manager Rene Simoes on the bench due to his expulsion from the Ticos’ final CONCACAF qualifier on October 14 against the United States in Washington, had the better possession early. Walter Centeno had a chance from distance in the 19th and it created a number of set piece situations that appeared to give it the early momentum.

But Uruguay, which trained in Guatemala to get accustomed to Estadio Saprissa’s artificial turf pitch, adjusted and scored with a second effort on Nicolas Lodeiro’s corner kick.

Lugano headed Lodeiro’s offering at goal, which had to be headed off the line at the right post by Azofeifa. The ball sailed to the top of the area, where Fernandez sent it back in and Lugano reacted, getting enough of a high right leg to push it inside the right post, where goalkeeper Keilor Navas could reached while being blocked by Azofeifa.

Uruguay had better possession after the goal, but Costa Rica had its best chance in the 43rd when Azofeifa’s ball out of the midfield was flicked high past Uruguayan goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who had come off his line, but sailed just over the bar.

Costa Rican felt it should be offered the chance to equalize in the 48th when Uruguayan defender Sebastian Eguren appeared to settle a high ball at the top of the area with his right arm. Television replays appeared to indicate Eguren clearly hit the ball with his upper right arm, but Undiano allowed play to continue and five minutes later Azofeifa was sent off.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica

Concacaf

Tags: 53rd, alvaro fernandez, artificial turf pitch, confederation, corner kick, eguren, estadio saprissa, Fernando Muslera, keilor, left leg, midfield, Rene Simoes, replays, right arm, second chance, second effort, straight world, uruguayan, Walter Centeno, yellow card

The time is now for Costa Rica

September 9, 2009

Heading into Saturday night’s home game against Mexico, Costa Rica realized three things would have to happen for it to fall from first to fourth in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.

The Ticos would have to lose to Mexico and, then, Honduras and the USA would have to win their games. At initial glance, all three seemed possible, but unlikely.

To make a long story very short, everything that could go wrong actually did go wrong for Costa Rica. Mexico won 3-0 at the daunting Estadio Saprissa, ending the home team’s perfect 2010 qualifying record there, while Honduras routed Trinidad & Tobago and the USA survived a challenge from El Salvador.

Now, the Tricolor finds itself out of the top three, staring directly into the glare of a playoff against the fifth-place team from South America for a place in South Africa.

An uneasy test at El Salvador tomorrow night, however, beckons and the prospect of righting the ship is urgent.

“Football gives revenge and ours will be this Wednesday against the Salvadorans,” said Costa Rican midfielder Carlos Hernandez. “We know how bad the team has been in the last two games, but we are confident that we will wash over El Salvador’s face to stay in the fight.”

The “fight” will have to take place without two key players, Alvaro Saborio and Armando Alonso, each of whom will miss the game due to yellow card accumulation.

After training yesterday at the Project Goal facility, head coach Rodrigo Kenton chose the team of 20 players to travel to San Salvador for the crucial encounter. The 54-year-old determined that players Daniel Cambronero, Adrian De Lemos, Geancarlos Gonzalez and Geiner Mora, as well as Saborio and Alonso, would not be part of the delegation.

“When you have a good squad of players ready to give everything on the field, it becomes much more difficult to make such decisions, but we talked to the boys, we explained that only for space reasons on this occasion they are outside the group,” commented Kenton.

There are no secrets between Costa Rica and El Salvador. This will be the sixth meeting between them since August 20 of last year. The Ticos won four-consecutive games before dropping a 2-1 decision in their last encounter on July 3 at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Cuscatlecos turned in a sterling performance that day, getting two goals from Osael Romero.

Time is short for Costa Rica and there is no looking back.

“Being in that privileged position (top of the hexagonal standings) created a bit of conformity in some, a little overconfidence and we must halt and start over again now,” Kenton was quoted in Costa Rican newspaper Nacion. “We have to make adjustments in midfield and attack, make changes and the selection has always been seen as playing soccer and want to make things right.”

“We were in a privileged position, some things have not gone as we wanted. We hope to have a change of attitude.”

Adversity breeds opportunity. There is no better time and place for Costa Rica to make things right than tomorrow in the Estadio Cuscatlan, where El Salvador has captured its only points of the hexagonal.

Costa Rica stands to learn a great deal about itself. At the end of 90 minutes, will it like what it sees?

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