by Rod Hughes

It was Yogi Berra who said with deathless wisdom, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
Anyone expecting a walkover by Saprissa and Alajuela in the National Soccer Championship semi-finals should remember that it’s a new century. Yesterday afternoon, Puntarenas came from behind twice to tie Alajuela 2-2. In a night game, Heredia shocked Saprissa with a 2-0 victory.
And the carping of the sportswriters about dull games was finally silenced. Totally.
The Heredia-Saprissa game was especially tense and action-packed, with narrow squeaks as Heredia bombarded the Saprissa goal time after time in the first half, only to be foiled by spectacular blocks by Saprissa star goalie Jose Francisco Porras or by the frantic pace of the game that leads to near misses instead of goals. Once, they attacked three times in the same half minute at the goalmouth while Saprissa’s defense frantically tried to plug the holes. All through the game Heredia used the same aggressive attack that Saprissa once made its trademark.
But after all the artillery fire of the first half, Heredia hit at the beginning of the second with a blast by Leandro Barrios on a pass from Jafet Soto. Kennett Vargas put the cork in the bottle with an assist from Cristian Badilla.
The Alajuela-Puntarenas tie didn’t put any fans to sleep, either. Alajuela seemed to dominate the game but defensive errors kept them from a win. Alajuela striker Victor Nuñez drove one in from a block by Puntarenas goalie Shane Orio only three minutes into the game. But Puntarenas star Kurt Bernard evened things up with a penalty kick beffore the half was ended.
But more was to come as Nuñez blasted one past Orio from the right. In the second half Eduardo Gomez took a centering pass from Kevin Sancho to get the tie so Puntarenas would remain alive to see Sunday’s second game.
Stay tuned. It ain’t over yet.