Costa Rica Blogs - Newsfeeds

by Rod Hughes

Saprissa has taken a commanding lead over First Division soccer with 19 points so far and an undefeated record of six wins, one tie and not losses. The undisputed leader of Group A, the club´s record outstrips leader of Group B, Perez Zeledon by four points and means a comfortable lead over Group A´s closest rival, Heredia (12 points). The champ of the first half of the 2007-8 season promises to do it again.

The Tibas warriors salted down a tasty victory Saturday over a troublesome Liberia, 3-2. Liberia had been winding up its civic festivals and the sportswriter for Al Dia could not resist a headline “Purple Fiesta,” referring to Saprissa’s purple uniform color. But this is a disservice to Liberia–the match was hardly the walkover implied by the headline. In fact, the Guanacaste side was ahead 2-1 at the half.

It has been a good year so far for Saprissa partly because it has been a great year for striker Alejandro Alpizar who has seven goals so far in the seven games played. He marked up two more Saturday, opening the scoring after only 13 minutes. Liberia’s Jacques Remy tied it at minute 40 and William Sunsing made it 2-1 for the home team as the half closed.

But Saprissa midfielder Armando Alonso tied it again five minutes into the closing half. Then it was Alpizar again at minute 58. As just this brief recap tells, Saprissa was facing a worthy rival, scrappy and fast, and the quality of soccer was perhaps Liberia’s finest hour this season.

Friday: Perez Zeledon 3, Brujas 2

Neither was Brujas of Escazu a pushover, but Perez Zeledon, having a fine year, was just too strong. Scoring for the winners (and giving PZ a clear leader over second place Alajuela in Group B) were Windell Gabriels and a duo of goals for Jewisson Bennett. Ricardo Steer scored for Brujas, the second on a penalty kick.

Sunday’s Results

The red and black striped Alajuela side had no real trouble dumping Cartago 2-1 yesterday. Eliseo Quintanilla opened scoring on a penalty kick in the first half but veteran Minor Diaz tied it for Cartago early in the second half. But at minute 73, Victor Nunez (substituting for Winston Parks) blasted in the winning shot.

University of Costa Rica scrambled out of the cellar with a vengeance in a 4-0 landslide over a hapless San Carlos in one of the worst performances of the northern zone club in their history in the First Division—perhaps in their history. The sieve that San Carlos called a defense allowed goals by Ariel Santana (after only 11 minutes), Reynaldo Parks (penalty) and Parks again and finally Jose Sanchez. (There is more to tell but we cannot bear it…) Cartago’s loss to Alajuela dropped them into last spot (with but three points in siven encounters) and raised UCR to safety—for now.

Heredia gave evidence that it may not be able to hang on even to its second spot in Group A, having to come back from a 2-0 deficit to Santos to tie 2-2. In the first half, the Santos attack was flawless and two goals by Marlon Arias left the impression that more was to come. Instead, Santos allowed victory to slip through greased fingers. Fabian Rojas closed the gap at minute 80 and Jonathon McDonald closed it completely with a bare fives minutes left.

Puntarenas continues its poor performances against lesser rivals with a 1-1 tie with Carmelita on its home pitch. Striker David Diach scored for Carmelita after 20 minutes and Roberto Wong tied it 12 minutes later. Fans were few in the port city’s Lito Perez Stadium, perhaps staying home to save themselves another disappointment.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under Sports (soccer mostly). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.