by Rod Hughes

It was civic fiesta time in the Pacific port city of Puntarenas as they hosted Heredia’s soccer team yesterday, and they had all the bells an whistles— sporting new uniforms, a new name (Puntarenas Futbol Club) and a new logo, a shark. Then Heredia de-finned the club, 2-0, on goals by forward Jonathan McDonald.

For the first 25 minutes, it looked as if all this change might work, a sort of move much like the old Tico superstitition about fooling the evil spirits by wearing your clothing inside out. The club that has fared badly of late came out breathing fire and prancing around in the area of the Heredia goal. In fact, had it not been for Heredia goalie Ricardo Gonzalez, they might have been one goal up. Then the rot set in, as if they suddenly realized, “Oh heck! It’s just us, after all.”

Saprissa Takes Over First Division
Saprissa took over leadership of the whole First Division, the top soccer league, by bouncing a hapless Cartago 3-1. During the scoreless first half, the game appeared fairly even and it was not until shortly into the second that Alejandro Alpizar sent a penalty shot past Cartago goalie Jean Carlos Chacon. He was to grow accustomed to the feeling of watching Saprissa’s shots whizzing past.

Alpizar fooled him again with a fine personal play at minute 69 but Minor Diaz netted a penalty goal as Cartago battled back.’Twas all for naught. Armando Alonso took a pass from Alpizar to salt down Saprissa’s win and that was that.

Santos Back in Win Column

Santos of Guapiles, which has not won a match since their opener in the second half of the season, bounced back with a win over University of Costa Rica, a club sliding down the slippery slope into the Second Division. The score, 3-0, showed how bad UCR is.

Brazilian Eneas Conceicao brought in two for the Santos side, sandwiching Mario Arias’s goal. We’ll see if that gives the Guapiles boys the momentum to do the same job on tougher competition.

Perez Zeledon 1, Carmelita, 0

Perez Zeledon won a hotly contested and equal match with Carmelita on a disputed goal by Jewisson Bennett at minute 75 from a well-judged pass from Wilmer Lopez. Claiming offside in a frustrated fury, Carmelita’s coach Mauricio Montero was booted from the field by referee Luis Rodriguez. But the damage was done and the team from the southern zone held Carmelita for the rest of the match.

Saturday: Alajuela 3, Brujas 1

Alajuela had a fairly easy time over Las Brujas of Escazu Saturday. The first half an hour, fans settled down to watch an even match but Brujas seemed to collapse after suffering the first goal aganst them, a blast from Winston Parks with an assist from Eliseo Quintanilla. It was Quinanill’s turn at minute 63 on a penalty kick and six minutes later Pablo Herrera put even a tie out of reach. In injury overtime, Daniel Jimenez of the Brujas made a final effort for the only Escazu goal.

Saturday: San Carlos 1, Liberia 0

San Carlos hiked itself up the ladder to Group A’s number one with a victory over host Liberia. The winning goal came in the first 12 minutes with Victor Abelenda’s penalty kick. The game was marred by a blizzard of red cards: Abelenda, Juan Carlos Arguedas for San Carlos and Willy Eras for Liberia.