by Rod Hughes

Poor Ticolandia! First, Alajuela loses in the istmus soccer tournament because of a handful of drunken hooligan fans and then its Great White Hope, Saprissa, loses the championship game to Motagua of Honduras 1-0.

Okay, so it’s not the Champions’ League, but it is the best test of football clubs of Central America and the gateway to a hemispheric tourney of clubs. That gate was slammed in Saprissa’s face when Motagua’s Josimar Nascimento blasted a goal past Saprissa goalie Fausto González on Emilio Izaguirre’s pass.

The championship game was marred in the first half by two monstrous referee errors. We know they were errors and not favoritism because they were at the expesne of both sides. First was the blindness of Salvadoran referee Joel Aguilar in missing Saprissa’s Michael Barrantes clear foul in front of Saprissa’s goal. Then, he annulled a goal by Saprissa’s Alejandro Alpizar on a prior foul that appeared to have been committed by a ghost only he could see. Motagua launched attack after attack, especially by Izaguirres and Nascimento.

Meanwhile, one of the leaders of that gang of Alajuela hooligans that cost Alajuela so much (including a $10.000 fine from FIFA for not being able to control its stadium) is now barred from not only the stadium but from entering the entire province of Alajuela! (He lives in San Jose, fortunately for him.) He was cited by a criminal court for use of intimidation and force against a public official, in this case, the police. The fate of others arrested in the melee is uncertain.