by Rod Hughes

Saprissa was king of the Opening Tourney this season, bringing home the 2007 laurels. But the long vacation was just too much and the Tibas team’s opener of the Closing half of the season against San Carlos resulted in a scoreless tie with the “Toros del Norte” (Northern Bulls, named after the country’s northernmost canton and its tradition of range cattle.

Of course, come what may, Saprissa’s impressive win on the opening half of the 2007-08 season ensures that they will play in the final but they will have to get their groove back if they expect to win the final half and take home all the marbles without a final playoff series.

But if Saprissa’s Sunday match with San Carlos was insipid, clueless Cartago’s scoreless tie against Puntarenas was almost painful for a team that did well during the first tourney. Cartago is called the “ciudad brumoso” (Foggy City) and La Nacion sportswriter Jairo Villegas could not resist observing that “a dense fog of doubt has fallen over the team.”

This is NOT what a soccer head coach likes to read over his Corn Flakes on a Monday morning!

In contrast to these two ho-hum games, a rejuvenated University of Costa Rica side under new coach Johnny Chaves downed Carmelita at its home stadium in Santa Barbara, 2-1. Carmelita was good but UCR simply overwhelmed them with aggressiveness and imagination in the area and knew how to eat up the clock when they led.

Scoring opened in the eighth minute with Berny Scott’s beautiful long distance shot past Carmelita goalie Kevin Stewart. At minute 33, Marvin Obando, who had fed Scott the pass for his goal, took a pass from Ronnie Martins to make it 2-0. It was not until the second half that Olman Vargas found the goal on a pass from Ariel Santana to put Carmelita on the board. But, although Carmelita actually had possession of the ball during much of the match, they could not put it into the money more than once.

Second Division

If Grecia keeps going as it has been, it will be the replacement for the hapless last place First Division side at the end of the season. Under Josef Miso, once the Flying Slav as Alajuela’s star forward, now in his first year as a coach, Grecia won the first half of the Second Division season and the first game of the 2008 half, blasting by San Ramon 3-1 Sunday.

If any club deserves a chance to play with the Big Boys, it’s the one from that pretty, friendly town north of San Jose. It has always been a good soccer town with excellent support at matches. It would be a fresh face on the scene…