Costa Rica played much better over 90 minutes in Montevideo than they ever did in San José, and they had Uruguay reeling toward the end, suffering as they always do, but at the final whistle it was the South Americans progressing on to South Africa and the Central Americans returning home without an official match for another 16 months. Last night the commentators were saying over and over again that this was a different Costa Rica team than what they were expecting. They absorbed Uruguay's blows (figuratively and literally), held onto the ball for an appreciable period, and actually created some moments of danger.
Despite seeming threatening, Uruguay were a lot closer to actually scoring than Costa Rica in the first half. After Abreu's goal, all Costa Rica really needed were two goal scoring opportunities. Walter Centeno took full advantage of the first one. Álvaro Saborío missed a glorious chance for the second, in the middle of Costa Rica's best spell of the match. That fight between the Costa Rican bench and the Tenfield production crew occurred at the perfect time for the Uruguayan players, and Costa Rica never cobbled together enough possession to obtain one more chance on goal. Saborío will think about that goal he missed for a very long time, and his reaction to the reporter at Al Día is a good indication of that.
One question that will be raised over and over again will be, if Costa Rica could play this well in Montevideo, where was this kind of performance in San Pedro Sula? Or in Saprissa against Mexico (which is where the Hexagonal really went south for them)? Or in San Salvador against El Salvador? Many will count the cost of not appearing at football's biggest stage and more questions will be asked about the preparation, the lack of proper perspective over the true state of the national team, the lack of international-caliber players at critical positions. Will anyone at the Federation be forced out? For the moment Eduardo Li is holding firm, but his future is very much in the balance.
For the moment, the only people exiting from the national team scene are the old guard. It's the end of the line for Walter Centeno, Luís Marín, and Ricardo González. It's almost certainly the end for Rolando Fonseca, although he hasn't announced anything yet. There will be some opportunities to incorporate the next generation, and Costa Rica do have a promising crop of young players starting with the U-20s who performed so well in Egypt last month (the U-17s not so much, but there's still time). It will be a time for tears, for recriminations, for pondering what could have been over nine months, for what almost happened over 180 minutes.
But almost is nothing in sport.
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