by Rod Hughes

Brujas of Escazú easily rolled over the University of Costa Rica side on its way to the semifinals of the Torneo del Verano, which is the 2008 half of the 2007-8 season. Brujas has no home pitch, since Escazú has no appropriate stadium, so all their matches are “away” and they were playing in Aserrí, a town south of San José for this match. Perhaps this was their advantage Wednesday for a 1-0 victory to follow up on their 3-2 win Sunday in the two-match elimination.

Earlier this year, UCR has looked extremely weak and Brujas had no problem holding them. But Alejandro Sequiera was not satisfied with a pasing grade as the fed the ball to Evance Benwell for the goal at minute 71. Earlier, Brazilian Ronnio Martins had directed a blistering shot at the UCR goal, stopped in a fine play by Argentinian goalie Osvaldo Quesada. So Brujas slipped past easily and is set for a two-match series with the faltering Saprissa, beginning Sunday.

Much has been written about the collapse of Saprissa this year, including by this reporter, so suffice it to say that Brujas looks like a strong adversary. Saprissa’s season beginning nine-match winning streak was capped by a losing streak and dropping of the CONCACAF regional championship to Pachuca of Mexico, plus the loss of a commanding lead in the First Division overall point standings to Alajuela. (The big purple “S” also won the opening half of the season.)

Perez Zeledon Dumps Heredia, 2-1

As this is written, Heredia fans are calling for the head of their club president Achille Alí upon seeing their club eliminated by a surprisingly strong Perez Zeledon. The warriors from the southern zone clearly out-played the much older club, Heredia, on its own pitch. As La Nación sportswriter Rodrigo Calvo noted, this hardly should have come as a surprise, since this is the third time P-Z has eliminated Heredia from the finals. Heredia was dumped from the opening tourney in 2004 and in a closely fought 2006 tourney Heredia was leading going into the second match 3-0 only to be trounced 4-1 in the second and to finally lose the penalty shootout 7-6.

This time, Heredia’s Carlos Angulo opened scoring at minute 39 with a free kick. Freddy Fernandez tied it up early in the second half on a pass from Luis Stewart Perez. Marco Herendez sealed it for P-Z at minute 70 with an assist from Tirso Guio who has been the backbone of the P-Z attack. (We note that Heredia coach Paulo César Wanchope is not under fire. Not only did he take over only lately, but he is an international soccer idol, Heredia’s favorite son.)