by Rod Hughes
Poor Cartago! After a respectable season last year, they have lost three games in a row, this time Sunday to Liberia, 2-1. And the Guanacaste team did it with one less man on the field for 84 minutes!
As the sportwriter for the newspaper Al Dia, Alexander Aguilar, said, it couldn’t have been worse for Cartago, especially in front of a home town crowd at “Fello” Meza Stadium. When Liberia’s Barry Saviy did a dirty at minute six and got tossed out of the game, the home team failed to make the penalty kick.
Liberia’s Kenneth Garcia drew first blood at minute 18. Cartago returned the compliment with a tying goal by Alexander Castro in the final minute of the first half.
At minute 71 of the second half, Jacques Remy turned a pass from Mauricio Alpizar into gold for Liberia. The last gasp for Cartago came in overtime but Liberia’s goaltender Michael Tommy saved the victory, duplicating his block of Minor Diaz’s penalty kick in the opening minutes of the game.
So bad was Cartago’s day that coach Roland Mora refused to talk to the press. When a Tico won’t talk to the press, it’s ba-a-ad!
Meanwhile, Puntarenas and Brujas of Escazu met Sunday in a 90-minute shootout that, ultimately, Puntarenas won 4-3. Talk about the OK Corral!
And Perez Zeledon dumped Santos 2-0. Previously winless Carmelita broke into the win column over San Carlos 2-1.