Both Costa Rica and Uruguay are making their arrangements for the World Cup playoff next month and scrambling to find out as much about the opponent as possible. René Simões is in Brazil right now, but he made a side trip to Montevideo with his head trainer to reserve training and living accommodations and do some additional scouting. He found some time to sit down with the O Estado de São Paulo for a wide-ranging interview. The pull quote from his interview will likely be the following:
Estado: Is Uruguay the favorite?Simões: I know that they're not going to like my opinion in Costa Rica. Is this were Brazil against Uruguay, I would choose Brazil. But in this case it's Costa Rica against Uruguay, and I would choose Uruguay. There's just one detail: we play on a synthetic pitch, which they have no experience with. That evens up the matchup.
Tickets go on sale in Costa Rica on Wednesday, with tickets ranging from US$8 to $45 -- the same price range as matches during the Hexagonal. Meanwhile, the Uruguayans will base themselves in Guatemala for the away leg, apparently because, in their opinion, Guatemala has a style of play similar to the Costa Ricans. If the Uruguayans really believe that, they need to get better scouts.
As for the decisive leg, the AUF (Uruguayan FA) have confirmed that kickoff of the match in the Estadio Centenario will be at 2000 local time, which is 1600 Costa Rican time.
Comments