COSTA RICA ROUTS USA IN WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

The United States soccer team doesn’t enjoy their trips to Costa Rica.  Wednesday night’s World Cup Qualifying game at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in San Jose clearly illustrates why—Costa Rica scored a goal just :79 into the game and went on to clobber the USA 3-1.  The US was fortunate to get on the board at all, needing a Landon Donovan penalty kick in stoppage time to avoid a shutout loss. 

The play of the two sides made the relative world rankings look very curious indeed—the USA is ranked #14 while Costa Rica is 41^st.  That wasn’t evident in Wednesday’s game, as Costa Rica’s superior team speed was clearly evident on their stadium’s artificial turf.  The US team dropped to 0-7 in their last seven qualifying games in San Jose, and their meaningless last minute goal was the first they’ve scored on Costa Rican soil since 2000. 

Alvaro Saborio scored the quick goal for the ‘Ticos’ just over a minute into the game, and Celso Borges made it 2-0 at the 12 minute mark.  Costa Rica made it 3-0 at 69 minutes when Pablo Herrera Barrantes scored.  The USA finally got on the board via Landon Donovan’s penalty kick tally as time ran out.  Saborio’s opening goal was the second fastest score ever against the USA in a qualifier, which prompted American coach Bob Bradley to affirm the obvious with this remark:

"Our reactions were a little bit slow”

Bradley didn’t make any excuses for his team’s lackluster performance and lopsided loss:

"We were under pressure from the start and we didn't control the game. They took advantage. I just don't think we were good enough."

The US team is still in decent shape to qualify for its sixth straight World Cup.  They’ll host Honduras in Chicago this Sunday before traveling to Mexico on August 12^th.  The USA has done even worse in Mexico than in Costa Rica, where they’re 0-22-1.  They’ll then return home to play El Salvador in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 5^th and have a rematch against Costa Rica in Washington DC on October 14^th.  The US will be all but guaranteed a spot in the World Cup should they win all of their home matches, a strong probability since they’re 15-0-1 since 2001 in games on American soil. 

With the victory, Costa Rica took over first place in the six team regional final bracket with a 3-1 mark.  The US is 2-1-1 followed by Honduras (1-1-1), Mexico (1-2), El Salvador (0-1-2) and Trinidad & Tobago (0-1-2).  Teams receive three points for a victory and one for a tie, and the top three teams in the regional bracket will quality for World Cup competition.