by Rod Hughes

Sunday’s First Division soccer matches produced two edge-of-your-seat matches—and both ended in scoreless ties.

First, the game between Liberia and Saprissa. Now, Saprissa is back, flushed with victory over Alajuela to gain a finals birth in an international tourney, so they came on the pitch with their bushy tails high and twitching and mopped up the place with the Guanacaste team. Right?

Well, not exactly… What happened was a fast-moving match with many attacks on the goal that bore no fruit. Not even a blossom. Both sides appeared evenly matched, espeically in midfield. So, 0-0. Oh, yes. The worst part of the match was the officiating, but FIFA rules do not allow the referee to bring his guide dog on the pitch.

Ditto with Heredia and Puntarenas. Played on Puntarenas’s home pitch, the match started slowly and got as hot as the Pacific port city’s climate. Heredia’s usually competent veteran Jafet Soto was especially cold, launching attacks on the goal early on without his usual precision. Probably the most damage came from two second half expulsions with Puntarenas’s Rodrigo Cordero and Heredia’s Carlos Johnson out for the next match. Not much to show for 90 minutes of intense effort, is it?

Then, there was a resurgent Brujas side mopping up Santos’ own pitch, 3-1. Santos played well for the first 20 minutes before running out of fuel Only 13 minutes in play and Santos’ Eduardo Valverde fed the goal. But the euphoria was brief in Guapiles. Only eight minutes later, Daniel Jimenez tied it. Not much later, Saul Philip gave Brujas the winning goal and before the first half was over, Ricardo Steer gave the Escazu side enough insurance to let them coast the second half. Brujas caused all the damage in 16 minutes.

A team with an even sadder story is UCR (University of Costa Rica), deep in a nosedive and continually dropping games. Yesterday, it was 2-1 to San Carlos. At minute 38, Luis Arroyo blasted in a deep pass from Victor Abelenda. In the second half, Carlos Acosta gave San Carlos the 2-0 insurance they needed to withstand Reynaldo Parks’s last minute pena;ty goal.

Trivia question: Alajuela has won the most championship in Costa Rica’s First Division. followed by Saprissa. But whch has won the most “Classics” between the two rivals?

The number of classics played since 1949 is 255. The “purple monster” Saprissa has won 96, the red and black 78 and 81 were ties. During those matches, Saprissa blasted in 325 goals as contrasted with 289 for Alajuela. (Now try that out on the local soccer fan nearest you.)