Ticos end slide, beat Trinidad 4-0. San Jose, Costa Rica – Alvaro Soborio scored a pair of goals and helped on another as Costa Rica ended a three-game losing streak to revive its World Cup hopes, beating Trinidad & Tobago 4-0 Saturday night in Rene Simoes’ first game as manager.
Costa Rica, which hadn’t scored its three losses, climbed into third place in the standings for the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying with 15 points, four behind the leading United States but two ahead of Honduras in the fight for the last guaranteed trip to South Africa.
Three sides are assured of berths in the 32-team World Cup field while the fourth-placed team will have to play a two-leg playoff with the fifth-placed team from South America for the last place in South Africa.
Costa Rica will play its final game against the already qualified United States in Washington on Wednesday while Honduras will have to travel to play already eliminated El Salvador.
Costa Rica dominated the first half but took the lead on an own-goal by Radanfah Abu Bakr.
The 28th minute score came from after a seemingly innocent cross by Costa Rica midfielder Michael Barrante had deflected off the foot Trinidad defender Abu Bakr before striking Julius James in the shoulder and past goalkeeper Marvin Phillip.
Costa Rica appeared to have taken the lead just seconds earlier when a strong long distance blast from Barrante had Phillip beaten but smashed off the Trinidad and Tobago post.
Phillip made two saves in the first 25th minutes, thwarting a blast from defender Christian Montero and another try in the 25th minute by defender Esteban Sirias.
Phillip kept the game close late in the half, turning away close shots by Costa Rica midfielder Brian Ruiz in the 36th and 41st minutes.
Phillip could not deny Walter Centeno, who notched his 23rd career goal for the Ticos in the 50th when he got behind a Saborio cross to make the score 2-0.
Sabario got things started when he raced down the left wing, turned Abu Bakr at the goal line and sent a pass across the face of goal to an onrushing and unmarked Centeno.
Sabario then scored his first in the 61st minute when he raced on to a through ball after a clever back-heel from midfielder Rolando Fonseca before outpacing Abu Bakr and calmly slotting the ball past Phillip.
Sabario added his second of the game and 16th of his career for the Ticos two minutes later, outjumping Phillip and striker Kenwyne Jones to head a corner kick past Phillip.
Trinidad finished the game with 10 men after James was ejected in the 65th after colliding with Centeno and appearing to make contact with his elbow.
Costa Rica could have made the score 5-0 in the 82nd minute but Montero couldn’t convert his penalty kick after Phillip made a sensational save and then made a second stop when Dennis Lawrence nearly knocked the spot kick rebound into his own goal.
Saturday’s match kicked off in a driving rain which made the aging playing surface at Saprissa Stadium slippery leading to several strange bounces off the artificial surface and several players on both teams struggling to keep their footing.
While Trinidad already had been eliminated from advancing to the 2010 tournament before Saturday’s game they close out their campaign against Mexico on Wednesday in Port-of-Spain.
TEAMSTRI: - 1.Marvin Phillip, 4.Jake Thomson (Yellow 87), 3.Julius James (Red 65), 5.Radanfah Abu Bakr (Yellow 12), 7.Kern Cupid, 11.Carlos Edwards (capt), 8.Trent Noel (15.Devon Jorsling 77th), 2.Clyde Leon, 12.Keon Daniel (10.Hayden Tinto 63rd); 14.Kerry Baptiste (6.Dennis Lawrence 69th), 17.Kenwyne Jones.
CRC: - 1.Keilor Navas, 3.Luis Murillo Marin, 2.Esteban Sirias, 4.Cristian Montero, 5.Dennis Marshall (Yellow 71), 6.Michael Barrantes, 17.Pablo Herrera (8.Victor Nunez 75th), 10.Walter Centeno (capt) (13.Cristian Bolanos 67th), 14.Randall Azofeifa, 9.Alvaro Saborio, 11.Bryan Ruiz (7.Rolando Fonseca 58th).
CONCACAF.COM
T&T suffers 4-0 loss in San Jose.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).Trinidad and Tobago suffered another miserable defeat, this time to Costa Rica by a 4-0 margin at the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium on Saturday night.
The win for the “Ticos” left the “Soca Warriors” at the bottom of the six-team table and kept the home team’s chances of qualifying for South Africa 2010 alive.
Alvaro Saberio scored two goals and Walter Centavo added another, while an own-goal opened the scoring which led to Rene Simoes' winning debut as coach.
T&T started the match with debutant Jake Thomson at right back while Kern Cupid and Julius James were also making their first appearance in the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones was the main hope up front with Joe Public's Kerry Baptiste. Carlos Edwards was the captain for T&T on a rainy evening in San Jose.
The “Soca Warriors” did in fact manage to contain the Costa Ricans for the opening twenty minutes the own goal put the home side ahead.
A low cross from the left by Michael Barrantes was sliced by Radanfah Abu Bakr and went in off James. A minute later T&T went on the attack and were unlucky not to have found the equalizer when Baptiste’s effort was headed off the line by a defender after a good run on the right by Edwards.
The visitors didn’t look like a side capable of being demolished in the first half as they maintained decent possession in spurts and had the Costa Ricans at bay and their fans out of the game for some periods.
Goalkeeper Marvin Phillip also came up big with a couple superb saves before the break to keep T&T within reachable distance of the home side.
And on the resumption after half time, Edwards and company started briskly, catching the “Ticos” off guard but nothing came of it before Simoes’ men punished T&T in quick succession.
Centeno doubled the advantage in the 50th minute when he converted from a Saborio cross. Saborio then struck a quick double, slotting home in the 61st and heading past Phillip in the 63rd minute to round off the scoring.
Phillip pulled off a good stop to deny Randall Azofeifa from the penalty spot as T&T played much of the second half with ten men after James was red carded for a bad challenge in the 65th.
Following the loss, Latapy conceded that his team were beaten by the better team on the night but still managed to take out a few positives from the defeat.
“At this stage of the campaign, we always knew it was going to come into a tough match because Costa Rica had everything to play for while our chances of getting to the World Cup were already over.
In saying that I thought we played good for 50 minutes before they scored their second goal and then we didn’t react well to that. We were punished with two quick goals,” Latapy told TTFF Media.
“But I was pleased with the effort from the players in the first half but again we conceded easily and we didn’t pick ourselves back up. A lot of times in football, how your results end up depends on how well you react when things don’t go your way and we didn’t react well.”
Speaking during the post game press conference, Latapy when asked what was the difference between this loss and the 3-2 defeat in Tobago, replied: “They were two completely different games because of the stages. When we played the first game we were still in with a chance of qualifying.
Trinidad is in a rebuilding process and this time we thought it would be good to give some of the younger players an opportunity to get some experience. I thought that my team played really well in the first half and in the second half with a lack of experience and a lack of concentration, we had 15 or 20 crazy minutes and Costa Rica scored their goals.
“In football you never know what’s going to happen and that’s the beauty of the game and it’s why everybody loves the game.
We also know that one of the reasons that Costa Rica has qualified for the last few World Cups is because they have become very strong at home so we knew right away that coming to play here was always going to be difficult.
“One of the factors which meant that the two games were different is that when we played in Trinidad, we still had the possibility to qualify for the World Cup, Obviously, as much as we are professions, you always work with a different motivation when you have a chance to qualify.
But in saying that it was a perfect opportunity for the Trinidad and Tobago team to give some young players an opportunity to play so they can see what playing this level is like because we are in a process of rebuilding for the future and for the next World Cup in 2014.
Every game we participate in as a national team we go into it with having the possibility of winning the game and this is what we always work towards and we will continue to do that until it becomes right for us,” Latapy said.
The T&T team will return to Port of Spain on Sunday evening and look ahead to their final match in the 2010 campaign against Mexico at the Hasely Crawford Stadium at 8pm on Wednesday.
Mexico booked their spot in South Africa with a 4-1 win over El Salvador on Saturday while USA also qualified by way of a 3-2 win on the road to Honduras.
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