by Rod Hughes

Costa Rica’s national champion club, Saprissa, went all the way to the finals of Uruguay’s Copa Ricard soccer tourney but could not must quite enough force to win against Nacional of that country. The sides played to a scoreless tie, then began the shootout with penalty kicks. The Tibas team’s hopes crashed when Saprissa idol Ronald Gomez’s kick slammed into the post instead of the back netting.

Try Bennett also missed his goal shot. Soooo…the final score was Nacional 4, Saprissa 3.

Nacional goalie Alexis Viera distinguished himself with superb stops of direct goal shots by Gomez, Armando Alonso and Pablo Brenes during the match.

by Rod Hughes

Tehran was frigid, just above freezing and it seemed to affect both sides in the exhibition match with Iran, resulting in a scoreless tie. Nonetheless, Costa Rica’s head coach Hernan Medford was satisfied. “”(Costa Rica” stacked up very well against a very good team…All my players did well, even the substitutes.” The game was played early Wednesday morning, Costa Rica time.

But the era of Medford is not exactly a sterling one. This is the ninth match without a victory, the worst record for the “La Sele,” as the All-Star team is called, since 1980. Their opponents had called some players back from clubs in Germany to play. They played a fast, explosive match contrasted with Costa Rica, which was able to muster only one soft direct goal shot and three that went astray. But the Tico defense held the line.

by Rod Hughes

Sometimes Mother Nature has a way of getting her vengeance in the most unique way. Case in point: the bizarre death in Carrillo, Guanacaste province of Zacarías Angulo, admired by his friends as an expert hunter. One night this week he and a companion, Jorge Barrantes, went out 15 kilometers from the town of Filadefia, Barrantes to illuminate the deer on this moonlight night.

“Spotlighting” deer is illegal in most countries because the deer is blinded by the light and freezes making an easy and unsporting target. But Angulo chose a highpoint and strung a hammock to sit in with comfort while the deer was driven to him. Fortunately for the prey but to Angulo’s disaster, he chose a dead branch to tie one end of the hammock..The branch broke as he waited along about 11 p.m., firearm in lap. Angulo fell more than 20 feet, landing on his head. He died of a broken neck.

Warned by Angulo’s cry as he was falling, Barrantes came running to find Angulo at the bottom of a steep hill. Barrantes ran for help but it was 3 a.m. before Jorge Luis Vega of the Belen Red Cross could reach the scene. Nothing could be done for Angulo by then.