All-stars Lose Final Friendly
- Details
- Category: Getting Along
- Published on Sunday, June 03 2012 08:23
- Hits: 294
After an uplifting home win against Guatemala last week, fans and the local press were disappointed with the reciprocal visit to Guatemala on Friday. This week the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying tourney will begin, and the all-stars don't appear to be in good shape. Although local media is fairly quick to hit the panic button, even local fans aren't very confident about the chances for Pinto's squad.
The return of Roy Miller and Heiner Mora to the defensive line didn't bring the improvement expected, in fact Miller was responsible for the only goal of the match. Carlos "El Pescado" Ruiz -- of course -- scored on a play you may sometimes see in junior leagues, but not at this level. In the 25th minute, the Costa Rican defensive line tried to catch the Guatemalan side in an offside position, but Miller didn't participate in the play, which left 5 Guatemalan attackers onside and in scoring position, goalkeeper Navas is good, but he didn't have a chance in that situation.
Otherwise there wasn't much to report, Guatemala was closer to scoring a second goal than Costa Rica was to getting a tie. The substitutes that Pinto tried (Alvaro Sanchez and Celso Borges) didn't make their mark on the match.
In his post-game remarks, Pinto wasn't very happy himself. "There wasn't much precision, some times we went on the attack and looked to tie the match. We tried to get a goal, but that is soccer."
"In certain lapses we were under pressure and against the clock, so we resorted to long passes. I can see good things and some things aren't so good. It wasn't a good game, but it wasn't so bad either. I am fine with some things, but there wasn't a consistent performance from the team. We can't measure the entire phase from this game. The mistake that lead to the goal is worrisome, and that's an error we can't repeat in the tourney."
The team will remain together this week and have closed practices starting Sunday, looking to open with a win against El Salvador on Friday. As the saying goes "el último que se pierde es la esperanza" (The last thing you lose is hope). We can always hope for the best!