by Rod Hughes
You remember when we said that the Guanacaste soccer team from Nicoya had a leg up on winning the Second Division and a chance to get back up to playing with the big boys in the First Division by virtue of their 2-0 shutout of the University of Costa Rica 11?
Well, they slipped!
UCR is the new entry into the First Division, replacing the boys from Liberia, another Guanacaste team that racked up a dismal record last season, losing all its home games. Guanacaste lost in miserable weather (like the first game of the finals) by a score of 3-0.
Not that Guanacaste was miserable on the field or at least not until the agony of defeat set in after the final whistle. For UCR, the victory was totally sweet–they are returning to the First Divsion after an absence of 31 years! And many near misses when they were left holding the bride’s bouquet…
Scoring could have been earlier had the goalkeepers been less adept. For example, UCR’s William Solís centered the ball infront of Guanacaste’s goal and it hit Jean Carlos Cardenas on the sleeve, causing a penalty. Alonso Hilarión kicked a hard one but Guanacaste goalie Wagner Hernandez managed to deflect it. Not long after UCR goalkeeper Osvaldo Quesada robbed Guanacaste’s Carlos Rodríguez of a goal.
But that was the last of Guanacaste’s near-glory. From there, the game turned into a comedy of errors. At minute 29, Hilarión passed the ball to Kareem Mclean whose header made it 1-0. With only three minutes to go in the first half, an unfortunate self-inflicted goal by Sebastián Cartagena made it 2-0 and the finals were tied.
The second half had barely begun when a torrential rain reminiscent of the game in Nicoya hit, turning the field into a giant mud pie. This should have benefited the boys from Nicoya who had won the game before under just such soggy conditions, but the trio of Mullins, Hilarión and Berny Scott wore away at the morale of Guanacaste with stirling play. And at minute 50, the roof fell in with UCR’s midfielder Luis Carrera booting in the pass to the First Division.
In lauding UCR’s deserved win, Guanacaste coach Jorge Briceño told the daily La Nación, “…They bested us in attitude and experience.”