Trickiest Score Betrays All-stars
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- Category: Getting Along
- Published on Saturday, June 09 2012 10:35
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On Friday night El Salvador snapped the Tico All-stars home winning streak at one game. After scoring two goals in the first half, disappointed fans saw a "sure" win go down the drain as El Salvador first scored as the half was winding down and came back to tie in the second half. While the Ticos generated a number of scoring options for the win, they couldn't manage to convert on any. There's a reason local play-by-play commentators call the 2-0 score "the trickiest" one
Once again, striker Alvaro Saborio was both the hero and the goat. In the opening minutes he received a pass on a free kick from Michael Barrantes and beat the goalie Benji Villalobos with a wicked shot in the area.
Joel Campbell continued to play very well, and was the author of the 2nd goal in the 15th minute, also on a play started by Barrantes and with an assist from Randall Brenes.
Lights Out
But, once again, the defense failed the All-stars. The first failure was in the 23rd minute, on a corner kick. The tricolor failed to cover the Salvadorian attackers on a corner in the area. While Navas saved the first shot, the rebound fell to Isidro Gutierrez who showed no mercy on his shot and gave the El Salvador side its life back.
A few minutes later, inexplicably, the stadium lights went out. There was no power outage in the area of La Sabana, but the Channel 7 reporters stated that apparently the stadium lights were running on the backup generators -- apparently a cost saving measure. When these failed, the lights went out and had to warm up again when technicians switched to the ICE grid.
The 30 minute delay didn't help the all stars, who despite the defensive error had been dominating the game. Once the lights came back on, the last 15 minutes of the first half were uneventful.
Just as the second half got underway, a silly mistake by Michael Umaña cost the Ticos a second goal, Rafael Burgos picked up the loose ball and put a beautiful pass on Osael Romero who coolly beat Keylor Navas for the tying goal.
The Costa Rican side tried mightily to win back the 3 points at stake, but to no avail. Oscar Rojas put the ball in the back of the net, but was just off sides, invalidating the goal. On another shot Villalobos deflected it with his fingernails, while Alvaro Saborio missed 3 clear chances to score, which is no surprise.
Guyana on Tuesday
Hopefully, coach Jorge Luis Pinto will be able to do something over the weekend to plug the holes in the defense that continue to plague the all-stars. The old formula for passing these types of elimination rounds is to win at home and tie on the road, this assures a team of at least a second place finish. So Costa Rica will be looking to get back those points with a win on the road against Guyana on Tuesday at 5 pm local time.
