by Rod Hughes

Eduardo Li, head of FEDEFUT, the country’s soccer federation, can file away his signed resignation in his desk drawer, still undated, at least for a month or two. He threatened to step down if the Costa Rican national team did not win last Saturday, but it did by a decisive 3-0 result.

Thus ended for now the 12 consecutive matches over a year in which it did not win a single encounter, including the 2-2 tie with Grenada in the first of the eliminations leading to the World Cup roster. Fortunately, all but the one with Grenada were exhibition matches. The “Sele,” as affectionate but worried fans call the national All Stars, tied or lost to Peru twice, Grenada, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Sweden, Iran and Jamaica.

But Saturday the local fans left Ricardo Saprissa Stadium content. (Normally the match would have been played at the National Stadium but that is being torn down to make way for a new, Chinese-financed stadium.) Relief came early, at minute 17, when Alvaro Saborio headed in a precise pass from Victor “Mambo” Nunez. This was especially sweet for him, since his performance with the All Stars has been severely criticized as not living up to his stirling performance in Switzerland where he is highly regarded by his club and their fans.

Thanks to another goal at minute 30 by Bryan Ruiz, the half ended 2-0. In the second half, the Ticos seemed even more aggressive in attack but lacking marksmanship until Randal Azofeifa found the goal mouth at minute 88 for the final insurance. But no one played with the steady dependability of Ruiz unless it was Celso Borges.

And how is this result going to go down with the board of FEDEFUT, who have been sharpening their knifes and eyeing coach Hernan Medford’s neck? No predictions but it didn’t hurt his chances to stay at the helm. The daily newspaper La Nacion reported today that Li had told them last Monday that Medford would be fired no matter what the outcome last weekend but asked the paper to sit on the story until after the second Grenada match, for obvious reasons. According to newsmen on the paper, he even mentioned possible candidate to replace the coach. But he can always deny it, since the conversation was off the record.)

(Editor’s note: We have been spelling Grenada with three “A’s” in the Spanish way, in case you were trying to find that Caribbean isle on an English-language map. Sorry. It’s called bilingual cross-pollination.)