The Costa Ric team has looked woeful in the four friendly matches they have played since arriving in Europe. The latest match against really 2nd rate competition was as close as they have gotten to a win. Hopefully this is a "look bad" strategy to make the Germans overconfident as the article mentions.
From
Inside Costa Rica this morning:
Quote:
WORLD CUP SOCCER:
Costa Rica Loses to German Amateurs
Four up. Four down. Costa Rica were beaten 3-2 by a German regional team of third, fourth and fifth division amateurs in a World Cup warm-up match on Thursday.
With the exception of first-choice goalkeeper Jose Francisco Porras, who played the first half, Costa Rica fielded mainly substitutes in front of a full house of 9,500 in the town of Sandhausen south of Costa Rica's base in the city of Heidelberg.
Costa Rica plays Germany in the World Cup's opening match on June 9. The other nations in Group A are Poland and Ecuador.
Costa Rica's central defenders Jervis Drummond and Michael Rodriguez failed to mark opponents, who scored easy goals in the fourth, 13th and 66th minutes.
The midfield, led by Christian Bolanos and Randall Azofeifa, could not penetrate the robust German team, but Kurt Bernard scored from a free kick in the 11th minute and Alvaro Saborio converted a late penalty for their second goal.
With yesterday's loss, it makes "friendly" game number four that Ticos have come up short. The first loss came on March 01 when the Ticos lost to Iran 3-1. Then on May 28, the national team lost 4-0 to the Ukranian team and May 30 they dropped 1-0 to the Czechs.
Many believe this is a tactic by the Costa Rican coach so as not to tip their hand against the powerful German team and favored winner of the opening game.
Others have just resigned themselves that the Ticos just plain "suck" and getting to the World Cup is compensation enough.
In any event, come June 9, the entire nation will be glued to a television set to watch.
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