www.CostaRicaTicas.com

The US soccer arrived at SJO for tonight's game and was forced to go thru regular customs instead of a private area, where they were insulted by Tico fans to the joy of President Laura Chinchilla. Then 3 different facilities turned down the US team for a practice facility. The Costa Rican federation also did not supply the balls for US practice as they were suppose to. Seems to be a bit of hostility here.

I'm guessing this is a bit of payback for the "Snow Game" back in March.
This is a huge match for the Ticos.
A win against the US, would go a long way towards qualifying for WC.
Only other home match for them is against Mexico...tough one there.

So, I can understand the intensity.
Come on Yanks!

_________________
I am a citizen of the World...
All mankind are my brethren...
To do good is my religion.
(Thomas Paine)

So glad I decided not to go. You should watch it at SL and not at a Tico bar.

As far as the airport special line thru immigration for US at SJO the other day, CR let it be known we didn't do it for them in the states this spring so I guess I'd say that was fair. I saw the tv news of USA's arrival at SJO. A few fans were able to get very close to our team but there were only a handful or so of Tico fanatics with banners yelling we didn't play fair, and one with the f word. Our players seemed not to be bothered.

For those who aren't aware as was just posted by 67SS, they were referring to this spring when we beat them 1-0 in a bad snowstorm in Colorado and if you saw the match, it really was kind of ridiculous to play in those conditions. CR team contends the match should have been cancelled, but FIFA says they didn't follow the rules in their request on the field. But it was ridiculous playing conditions for both teams so crazy but not unfair. Should have been cancelled but I read where the real unspoken reason was that it would have messed up the rest of the World Cup qualifying schedule for all the contenders.

The other thorn in their side is what happened the last World Cup qualifying series when we played them I think in 2010 in the states. We were already qualified to go to the Big Show so it was really a meaningless game for USA. CR needed the game to advance or go home. CR was winning in the last minute of play and thought they were in. Nope, we scored on a shot out of nowhere for a tie but that knocked CR out of going to the Cup and put Honduras in. They're still pissed that we didn't lay down with a minute to go and let them advance.

And then add the usual anti-gringo feelings and I'd say the Estadio could be a tad dangerous for Stars & Stripes wavers. And SJ. The game is an hour away and I'll bet from past experience there isn't a sober Tico from the Atlantic to the Pacific including the ones in N America.

I read where we have never beaten them in CR, like 0-7, but always had played them at their dumpy Saprissa playground with a crappy unkept artificial field and where the fans are right on top of you throwing and yelling. CR wanted this match played there also. FIFA said no, so for the first time we are in CR's grand new stadium where the fans are way back and the teams are playing on a professional natural grass surface. Oddsmakers in England have CR as 3-2 favorite, couldn't find a Vegas line.

If it sounds like I know futbol I do not hardly at all, but I do watch the rare USA v CR match.

Was actually looking forward to watching this on TV in the states, until I found out it's not on TV. Not even on ESPN3. It's being streamed on something called BeIn Sports which requires you have a subscription to one of a handfull of cable operators they have a deal with. Dang.

The game starts in about an hour.

Can't you do a SKYPE video call to someone in CR who can put their computer in front of their TV for the duration of the game??????

a friend in the States said it is on Channel 620 on Direct TV

I read that local Ticos were tossing eggs at the bus taking the team from the airport to their hotel-now that's a rude welcome!

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"cuz I'm a back-door man" Jim Morrison-1969

Maybe Team USA is drowning their sorrows in some Ticas about now...

For as big a game as it was in CR, and for our team, the game generated virtually no US newspaper coverage this morning. Searched the game on Google, the News link, really nothing. The US women beating Mexico got alot of ink.

I never have kicked a soccer ball, and only watch USA v CR and then the final four, but it seemed to me our goalie was kind of weak. Flat footed on the first? The 2nd goal, we scored it for them off the head of one of our guys --like the 1960's Viking Jim Marshall's wrong way run--what was that guy thinking last night? The 3rd goal on that one-on-one breakaway went rather softly between our goalie's legs. Reminded me of Bill Buckner's 1st base error in the '86 RedSox Mets series. Maybe an off night?

Also, I didn't know until last night that if a player got called for a foul and got a yellow card from the ref he is then disqualified from the next match--that being Mexico. And we caught two realy dumb ones.

Isn't it that only two teams from each division advance to the next round? Possible we ain't going to make it?

The Ticos completely dominated the match from start to finish.
They controlled the midfield, and used the left flank like an expressway to create scoring opportunities.
Campbell is an absolute animal!
The US had no answer for his amazing speed. (A huge weak spot has now been exposed.)

One more win should punch the Tico ticket to Brazil.
Three teams from this group will advance, and the fourth place team will play a qualifier against New Zealand.
So, with Mexico struggling, I think we will see both the US and CR make the WC.
If so, next June could be fun to watch a bit of futbol in San Jose.

_________________
I am a citizen of the World...
All mankind are my brethren...
To do good is my religion.
(Thomas Paine)

Personally, I was rooting for the Ticos, and not because of the snow fiasco. As other posters have put it, the game didn't even rate television coverage in the USA on ESPN3. We Yanquis have our own sports that we care about, but futbol? Naw.

But to the Ticos? It was pure joy. The elation lasted through the weekend. If I have something I don't care about and it would overjoy somebody else to have it, in this case a soccer win, I'm the kind of guy who says what the f? Let 'em have their moment of glory. Now that the Ticos have had their revenge I imagine the snow fiasco will be mostly forgotten.

I'm glad to see the locals having something to be proud of. Especially something that means so little to most in the USA.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

flew home this morning and spoke w some American Guatemalans that attended the match.
they said they were treated like trash by the locals with continual insults and cursing throughout the match.
the wife said she was genuinely in fear of her life after the US scored and they were pelted and spit at.
she said it was so bad that she begin hoping the US would lose.
hard to understand how cheering for a sports team can get so ugly.
but it seems to be happening a lot everywhere.
i think my days of attending live sports events is nearly over.
its not a gang turf war.
muy feo ticos muy feo

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im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

All baloney, I don't believe it. Even once you get out of the gulch, we all know they love gringos, love us

You can even get invited to a puta's family picnic and they will accept you and treat you like family and embrace you, and her brothers and her novia on the side will disremember that they know 100% you're paying to screw their sister. They have their protocol not to step on each others toes when it comes to $$.

Probably not worth mentioning, but bad sportsmanship and sports fan violence don't have much to do with nationality. English soccer louts are world famous. Some LA Dodger fans beat an SF Giants fan into a coma for wearing a Giants jersey to a Dodgers game. In Costa Rica, they bring out the security whenever Saprissa plays Liga and there's still violence.

Sports fandom is one of the greatest negative examples of what Vonnegut called "granfaloonery." (Cat's Cradle)

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

totally agree although it can be, and often is, especially egregious in soccer.
Dodger games have gotten worse in the recent years but Giant fans have been legendary for their poor sportsmanship. see "battery chuck".
and while the guy didn't deserve that beating. you are ill informed if you think he was a guy who simply "wore a Giant jersey". there were numerous interviews of fans in attendance that day stating Brian Stow was very verbal and baiting the locals. again not saying he got what he deserved but if i am in an opposition stadium i don't jump up and show my bare ass on every play.
i don't attend much in the way of sporting events anymore for various reasons. and i certainly don't beat my dog if my team loses. life goes on pretty fast.
getting upset and angry about grown men playing sports makes as much sense as shouting down a guy for driving a ford and not a chevy.

_________________
im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood