by Rod Hughes

Somebody should tell the Brujas soccer team that having magic is important but you’ve got to keep it up. (Brujas means “witches” in Spanish and is named after Escazu, the “city of witches” and the seat of this club’s franchise. A scrapping University of Costa Rica side gave the witchlets a scare by coming alive in the last 10 minutes to score two goals against Brujas.

The scene was the National Stadium in downtown San Jose Sunday during the first game of the quarterfinals that will eventually lead to the 2007-8 championship. Brujas had been racking up 3-0 through the first half and the first minutes of the second on Danny Fonseca’s header after nine minutes of play, followed by Leandro Gobatto’s goal at minute 36 and Alejandro Sequiera’a at minute 48.

Having decided that they had enough insurance, Brujas went over to the defensive, basking in the cheers of their fans. Then their spell slipped. UCR’s Reynaldo Parks zeroed in with a penalty kick at minute 79. Then Ronnio Martins scored at minute 93. Whoa! Back to the old caldron… It didn’t help when Kraesher Mooke was sent off, leaving Brujas with 10 on the pitch. But UCR couldn’t capitalize on this happy circumstance.

Perez Zeledon 1, Heredia 1

Paulo Cesar Wanchope’s Heredia side could not get past Perez Zeledon who had home pitch advantage in San Isidro de El General. But Heredia will have a chance to go ahead in the second match of the quarterfinals to be played in the “City of the Flowers” (Heredia), if you believe in home pitch advantage.

Heredia’s Kenneth Vargas opened the scoring at minute 19 on an assist by Leonardo Gonzalez. P-Z was unabled to match it until the second half when Alexander Madrigal found gold in Tirso Guio’s assist.

San Ramon on Trail of First Division Birth

San Ramon is well on its way to take over Santos’s vacated position in the First Division, with a stunning 3-0 victory over Barrio Mexico Sunday on the latter’s home pitch. This was a two-match series where home pitch advantage didn’t mean a thing.

First, San Ramon lost to Barrio Mexico at San Ramon, 2-1. Then they came right back to trounce them yesterday in the capital, winning the series by two goals in the accumulated figures. Ramonse head coach Orlando de Leon is famous for taking clubs with a serious self image problem and filling them with spunk. He’s done it again.