by Rod Hughes

Henry Raabe of Cartago had his worst day yesterday and could have lost his lead in the Tour of Costa Rica bibycle race if it had not been for the assistance of two able BCR-Puzza Hut teammates, Federico “Lico” Ramirez, who took the lead in the mountains to give him a breather and then, Jose Adrian Bonilla performed the same service.

Two days ago, Raabe appeared to have an unassailable lead but Francisco Colorado of the Greatwall team proved the hardier mountaineer, threatening to take away the lead in this, the penultimate state of the Tour.

by Rod Hughes

Well, it was no real surprise, what with Saprissa going into the final match with a two-goal advantage from a 2-0 win over Herediam, but the boys from Tibas are the champions of the Opening Tourney by way of a 2-2 tie last night.

Soccer being the fast, ever-changing sport it is, perhaps we should not be so blase. We can remember a classic some years ago with Saprissa ending the second half with a comfortable 3-0 lead only to lose it against Alajuela, 4-3. Of course that was a Saprissa of young, talented but irratic players and this year’s model is ful of mature, steady veterans. Except in international play, where they still tend to fall apart unexpectedly.

It was a much more competent Heredia than in the first 2-0 match, as the 2-2 tie shows. But, perhaps it would have been a more resounding victory if the Saprissa fans hadn’t gone wild at minute 41 with the score 2-1 in their favor, setting off fireworks in celebration.and forcing referee Walter Quesada to call a halt and later add a whopping nine minutes overtime.

Nine minutes is an eternity in soccer, plenty of time for Felix Montoya to send a bullet into the goal’s back netting for the tie. Certainly, this was as unexpect as Try Bennett’s goal for Saprissa in the first half, after only two minutes, that signaled to fan that this would be a “purple” runaway. Then, at minute 33, the unfortunate Heredia player Jose Chan committed a self-inflicted goal. But as the half was ending, Marvin Angulo found the range against Saprissa.

With the goals by Angulo and Montoya (the latter a clear standout for Heredia) honor was served. Make no mistake that Heredia is a pushover–the fans in that town are no less soccer crazy than are Tibas or Alajuela. But through the years thay’ve been overshadowed by the Big Boys, Alajuela and Saprissa.

We’ll see if Saprissa can hold its dominance in the second half of the 2007-8 season. They have good balance between offense and defense and, in Jeaustin Campos, a fine field marshal but soccer is as fluid as a movie starlet’s passion.

by Rod Hughes

Saprissa swept past Heredia Wednesday evening, 2-0, and made it look easy. As La Nación points out, this places the Tibas boys only 90 minutes away from winning the so-called Opening Tourney.

The regular soccer season is divided into two parts in Costa Rica’s First Division. If Saprissa can keep Heredia from scoring three goals Sunday, they will be champs of the Opening stanza. They will play, at the end of the season, the winner of the Closing half. If Saprissa should win the closer as well, they take their marbles home as national champions.

Saprissa was dominant throughout the 90 minutes Wednesday, coasting through the second half with a comfortable lead. Mistake-prone Heredia found itself behind at minute 39 on a self-inflicted goal by their own Moctezuma Serrato, in this case well named for the hapless Aztec king who lost his land to a handful of Spanish thugs. Midfielder Celso Borges sewed it up for Saprissa, assisted by Alonso Solís in injury overtime of the first half.

by Rod Hughes

Henry Raabe continues to lead individual performance in the Tour of Costa Rica bicycle race, but the third place Dos Pinos-Coopenae team mounted an attack on his BCR-Pizza Hut teammates in an attempt to pull out a team win, if nothing else. BCR-Pizza Hut has the team laurels as of Wednesday, partly due to Raabe’s blinding speed. BCR-Coopenae is 4 minutes, 40 seconds behind the leading team.

Mapache-Cuba is in team standing’s second place in this, the sixth stage of the race on a sterch of relatively flat road between Upala and Ciudad Quesada in San Carlos. They are 1:10 behind BCR-Pîzza Hut. Greatwall-Colombia trails a distant fourth, more than 5 and a half minutes back.

But anything can happen and a flat tire or a broken chain or any number of mechanical problems with these delicate racing bikes can change the picture drastically. That is what makes competition cycling one of the world’s most popular sports

by Rod Hughes

Costa Rican Henry Raabe of the BCR-Pizza Hut bicycle racing team grabbed the lead away from Cuban Ardonis Cardozo yesterday in the fourth phase of the Vuelta de Costa Rica (Tour of Costa Rica). Raabe leads the individual competition by two minutes.

This phase was a timed lap between the Nicoya Peninsula town of Filadelfia and a farm outside the Guanacaste provincial capital of Liberia. Liberia is 250 kms. northeast of San Jose. Because of the “wrinkled” nature of the country’s topography, the Tour of Costa Rica with its combination of chilly mountains, flat, hot tropical lowlands and high mountain valleys, is considered particularly grueling by bicycle racers.

In this particular phase, Raabe was the favorite to win on the flat, hot run and came in 11 minutes ahead of Cardozo and proving the experts right. This puts Raabe temporarily in the lead but the mountains lie ahead in the return to the Central Valley, so anything might happen before the final tape is broken.

by Rod Hughes

Saprissa stretched to 16 its string of “classics” (games with Alajuela) without losing but was only able to tie Sunday 1-1. But this was enough to send the “purple monster” to the final with Heredia in the Opening Tournament, which is actually the first half of the regular season.

Saprissa is in the finals, of course, by virtue of its previous 1-0 win over Alajuela the Wednesday before, making it 2 goals to 1 in the two game series. (Are you still with us?)

Meanwhile, in this period, Heredia was tying Brujas of Escazu in their two-game series before managing to win the last game 1-0 in overtime. For Brujas (formerly Guanacaste before the franchise moved to Escazu, it was a disappointment but established them as a power to reckon with in the First Division.

At least Alajuela did not disgrace itself this time, which may have been the greatest fear of coach Luis Diego Arnaez. In fact they acted like the tough opposent of yore, even after Ronald Gomez scored for Saprissa, assisted by Alejandro Alpizar at minute 24. They came right back 13 minutes later on Victor Nunez’s goal, generated with the help of Mario Viquez.

After that, in the second half, it was the usual fast interchanges of ball-theft and footwork one usually expects in a classic. Saprissa was not content with a conservative game but late in the second half gave Alauela goalie Wardy Alfaro several chances to show why he is considered one of the best in the business.

by Rod Hughes

Alajuela fans are beginning to forget the last time their soccer side beat Saprissa in the national championship league. The younger ones probably never saw the last victory. And you can add the notches Saprissa has carved in its gunbutt in the UNCAF regional tourney.

Saprissa has won the last 15 “classics,” as the matches between the two winning-est teams in national soccer are called. They are two of the oldest in the First Division, Costa Rica’s equivalent of the MLS. And Saprissa did it again Wednesday on Alajuela’s home turf, Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium, 1-0. Alajuela’s nemsis this time was Saprissa’s Alejandro Alpízar who slammed a left-foot kick through the arc at minute 39.

Alajuela, which had been playing reasonably well, seemed to fall apart after that goal, as if to say, “Oh no, not again!” Saprissa by contrast played like a clock with a new battery, showing that the work of coach Jeaustin Campos has paid off in a big way. He drills his charges hard between games, but it obviously works.

Unnoticed by the fans, two members of La Doce, that group of drunken Alajuela fans who invaded the pitch Nov. 27 and whose violence against police caused Alajuela to lose a possible third place finish in the UNCAF internation tourney, tried to sneak in at half time. They were recognised by police and taken downtown to lockup. By court order, they should have been barred from Alajuela province, let alone the stadium. Six of the La Doce gang are banned from the stadium.

by Rod Hughes

While Saprissa was putting another step on its ladder to the so-called “opening tourney” of the regular season, Brujas of Escazu and Heredia were tying 0-0 Wednesday. For Brujas, clearly the dominant side, it was complete frustration, partly due to their having to oplay with 10 men for 50 minutes. This was after Colombian Ricardo Steer rammed Heredia defender Roberth Arias with his chest and referee Hugo Cruz gave him the red card. Some considered Cruz’s decision to expell Steer undly harsh but it was so blatant and ill-natured that the official could hardly ignore it.

Outstanding was Heredia goalie Ricardo González in staving off the repeated Brujas attacks. On the other hand, the offense of his teammates appeared timid and, well, inoffensive.

by Rod Hughes

The bright red Toyota Supra of Javier Quiros snaked around the twisty course at La Guacima yesterday for a win in the Three Hours of Costa Rica and a second place in the championship for their class. A record 20,000 spectators, the most in the 33 years of the circuit’s history, saw Quiros come from very last place to the checkered flag at the head of the pack.

Quiros was at the back of the grid due to engine trouble on Saturday that kept him from qualifying. But the mechanics cured the defect for Sunday and the Supra, introduced this year, ran like a clock Sunday. He has overcome various adversities throughout the season and possibly could have won the championship if he had not had to stand down for two dates of the championship races. As it was he won four out of six races and only finished one point behind the leader.

First on the grid was Emilio “Milo” Valverde’s Nissan, second was Guatemalan Carlos Zaid’s Corvette. But by lap 13 Quiros had made is way through the pack to breathe down Valverde’s neck and he took the lead two laps later. But, while chasing Quiros, the Nissan’s greabox gave up the ghost, leaving second place to Zaid.

In the second heat, Quiros had an easier time of it, being first on the grid due to his previous win. Zaid’s Corvette soon ceased to be a challenge, dropping out with electric problems. Overall GT-1 second place went to Marco Micangelli’s Corvette and third to Jorge Trejos in a Porsche 911. GT-3A class win went to Amadeos Quiros in a Alterra and GT-3B to Marco Castro in a Honda Civic.

by Rod Hughes

More bad news from the world of international soccer tourneys–The Under-23-year-old soccer All Stars lost yesterday to Panama in their bid for the third-place berth that would have taken them to the Olympics in Beijing next year.

Earlier they dumped Panama 1-0 in Panama but yesterday in Ricardo Saprissa Stadium they showed themselves clueless, while coach Hernan Medford stalked the sidelines in a fury and all but rent his clothing and poured ashes on his head. Even the expulsion of Roland Algandona that left the Ticos facing only 10 men did not help. After trying to control a deft Gabriel Torres, the apathetic Tico defense let Armando Quintero through for a goal that won the game and forced the penalty kick shootout that Panama won.

As the sportwriter for the newspaper Al Dia wrote in a headline, “We’re in a Nosedive.”

The loss caps a litany of miserable performances of Tico soccer teams this year, right on the heels of Saprissa’s loss to Motagua in the Uncaf battle of clubs in the istmus. Not far behind Alajuela’s loss to Municipalidad of Guatemala and their loss of a third-place finish due to a tiny gang of hooligan fans.

The last really good news was last February when the pro-All Stars won the UNCAF championship again 3-1 over Panama on penalty kicks. All very wonderful, but not long afterward the Under-20-year olds were booted out of the first round of the tourney in Canada for that class. Then it was the under-17-year-old team’s turn, doing well in the Korean World Cup for that age group before getting rudely dumped 2-0 by Argentina. We could go on, but you get the point.