by Rod Hughes

The Costa Rican soccer All-Stars go up against Jamaica tomorrow in Kingston’s National Stadium and coach Hernan Medford is looking for the first victory to end a dismal streak that began June 17 of last year without a victory–nine matches. Although it is an exhibition game, fans will scrutinizing their play, seeking some sign that they may make it to the next World Cup.

The natives are restless. The newspaper Al Dia conducted a poll of 220 fans, the results of which were printed yesterday. The vast majority of fans, 174, categorized the All-Stars as “very bad.” When sportswriters conduct surveys, it is a bad sign, Either they lack stuff to fill their columns or they want the fans to say what they haven’t the heart to write. This is clearly the latter.

Almost as a footnote last week, the “Sele,” as the picked team of national soccer heros is known, journeyed all the way to Teheran, where they battled their opponents to a scoreless tie. Then, they lost the shootout of penalty goals, 4-3. That did not sit at all well with Al Dia sportwriter Ericka Rojas who criticized their lack of maneavering close to the goal. She seemed to feel that Costa Rica’s soccer team deserves their FIFA ranking of a dismal 69th in the world.

Sooo…We will see tomorrow how they do against the “Reggae Boyz” in Jamaica. The Caribbean islands traditionally do not do well in the regional Concacaf runups to the World Cup, fielding blazingly fast teams that often seem unable to aim their goal kicks. But this is an exhibition game and Medford is still experimenting like an alchemist, thrying to turn lead into gold.