by Rod Hughes

Uh-oh, boys and girls, this does NOT look good! Saprissa, usually deadly on its own home pitch, tied 1-1 with the Mexican soccer club Pachuca Monday in Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in the first match of two to decide the CONCACAF champion,. Riding on these to matches is a cool $1 million prize and a birth in the FIFA world championship tourney of clubs in Japan.

To recap, the big purple “S” started the year (after a tie in the opener) with nine straight wins in the the national championsips, plus knocking off a couple of prestigious sides in the CONCACAF tourney, including the last, a powerful Houston Dynamo. It has since dropped four straight First Division matches and now tied at home. WHASSAMATTA?

If it had not been for Victor Cordero’s opportunistic goal with a minute of official time left, emerging from a meleé in front of the goal, the task for Saprissa might have been insurmountable. Pachuca had led since minute 46 after Damián Alvarez enabled Luis Gabriel Rey to score a goal. These two gave numerous headaches to Saprissa defenders with their short game. This game proved more effective than Saprissa’s attacks from the sidelines.

As La Nación sportwriter Gustavo Jiménez observed, the usually effective combination of Andrés Núñez and Armando Alonso on the right, backed by veteran Ronald Gómez, met with a cool, organized Pachuca resistance. This, plus Michael Barrantes playing close in on the left, ready to convert himself into another forward, should have swamped Pachuca—but didn’t.

But, after all, it’s only a game, mere entertainment, we tell ourselves as we chew our nails awaiting the next encounter.