If you didn't see it, Costa Rica -- needing a win to guarantee qualification for the World Cup -- took an early 2-0 with two fine goals from Ruiz. The US, who fielded a nearly-full strength team, played reasonably well (certainly better than their terrible 3-1 loss in San Jose last spring) but had nothing to show for it. A second half goal off a rebound from Bradley made it 2-1, but here's where things got interesting. First Onyewu goes down injured (now out for 3-4 months, which is very bad), then the Costa Rican coaches go nuts on the sidelines over a substitution issue. It seemed pretty clear to me that they were killing as much time as possible, as the entire team had done for most of the second half. Eventually, the ref says enough's enough and tosses head coach Rene Simoes and his assistant (who could be seen saying "Don't touch me!" while being escorted from the field by a DC cop). All that time-wasting on the part of Costa Rica results in five minutes of injury time, and with fifteen seconds left of those five, Jonathan Bornstein swoops in and heads a corner kick low into the net to tie it up. Down in El Salvador, Honduras had taken a 1-0 lead, meaning their win, coupled with a bigger goal difference, would be enough to put the Hondurans in the World Cup and send the Ticos to a difficult playoff with Uruguay for the final spot. The US game ended 2-2, setting off wild celebrations amongst the Hondurans and ensuring the time-wasting and gamesmanship of Costa Rica wasn't rewarded.
Watch the goals from US-Costa Rica here and from El Salvador-Honduras here.
UPDATED: If you haven't already heard this, go now and listen. It's the radio broadcast from Honduras as the result comes in from RFK meaning Honduras clinches a World Cup spot. I don't speak Spanish, but it doesn't matter at all. Just a little taste of what's in store next summer, hopefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment