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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Ticos Awaiting Charrúa Challenge:
Big Game Tonight At 8pm
After over two years of travelling, Costa
Rica and Uruguay are finally reaching the
end of the road to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In the wake of next Wednesday’s return leg,
the world will know which of the pair will
be heading for South Africa, with both teams
are hoping to lay the foundations for
progress with a positive result in Saturday
14 November’s first leg.
The Costa Ricans are due to play the first
encounter on home soil and take on the
two-time world champions knowing that they
were mere seconds away from securing a
direct passage to next year’s showpiece.
Denied by a last-gasp United States
equalizer in Washington DC, Los Ticos’
supremo Rene Simoes has had his work cut out
trying to lift his charges’ battered morale.
Uruguay too had automatic qualification
within their grasp: a win over arch-rivals
Argentina at Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario
in their final game would have seen them
through. However, in a fiercely contested
encounter of few chances, La Albiceleste
struck late on to take the spoils and send
La Celeste to the play-offs.
The stakes
Costa Rica have been regular visitors to the
FIFA World Cup since reaching their first
finals at Italy 1990. Despite missing out on
USA 1994 and France 1998, the Central
Americans returned to world football’s top
table for Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006,
with Simoes’ current squad boasting two
players who appeared at both those events:
Walter Centeno and Luis Marin. A third
finals for the veteran pair would be a
regional first.
Uruguay, for their part, are steeped in
footballing heritage. Winners of the first
ever FIFA World Cup in 1930 on home soil, as
well as the famous Maracanazo triumph at
Brazil 1950, Los Charrúas have supplied some
of the greatest players ever to grace the
game in the likes of Jose Nasazzi, Juan
Schiaffino, Obdulio Varela, Víctor Esparrago
and Enzo Francescoli.
Recent global success has been hard to come
by, however, with La Celeste reaching only
Korea/Japan 2002 out of the last four FIFA
World Cups. Even that came courtesy of a
play-off victory over Australia, opponents
who defeated them at the same stage four
years later.
The build-up
Coach Simoes has put together a careful
strategy for his team to follow over the
two-legged tie, and Los Ticos’
domestic-based contingent were brought
together two weeks ago to ensure no stone
has been left unturned. This core of players
were subsequently joined on Sunday 8 and
Monday 9 November by Costa Rica’s
foreign-based performers, with the
experienced Brazilian tactician choosing to
focus mainly on confidence-building
exercises.
Uruguay boss Oscar Washington Tabarez,
meanwhile, decided to help his players
acclimatise to the artificial pitch at the
Estadio Ricardo Saprissa and avoid the
negative effects of a long-haul journey by
putting his squad through their paces at
training camp in Guatemala, one equipped
with a similar artificial surface. Los
Charrúas will be without key figures
including Cristian Rodriguez, Jorge Fucile
and Edinson Cavani, though a quick glance at
the talent in the travelling party
underlines the size of the task awaiting
Costa Rica.
The star players
Topping this list is one of the world’s most
lethal strikers in Atletico de Madrid’s
Diego Forlan who, despite his current
travails at club level, remains capable of
changing the course of any game. Other main
men for La Celeste include imposing keeper
Fernando Muslera, defensive rock Diego
Lugano and young forward Luis Suarez, in
prolific form this season for Dutch giants
Ajax
Not that Costa Rica short on ability either,
with the goals of main man Bryan Ruiz firing
his club Twente to the top of the Eredivisie.
Aiding and abetting the gifted attacker will
be 36-year-old schemer Centeno, the
intelligent promptings of midfielder Celso
Borges and the safe hands of keeper Keylor
Navas.
The stat
5 – The number of domestic-based players in
the Uruguay squad, all of whom ply their
trade for Nacional or Defensor Sporting. The
remaining Charrúas play their football in
Argentina or Europe.
The words
“The team’s morale level will be crucial
over these games. We’ve been going over this
a lot with the players because it’s vital
they change their mentality and believe in
themselves. There needs to be a belief that
they can win and not just from the players,
but from the fans and the media too,” Rene
Simoes, Costa Rica coach.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to qualify
for the World Cup, but it won’t be at all
easy. The most important thing is to pick up
a good result away from home so we can relax
more going into the return at the Centenario.
We’ve got a lot of quality in this squad and
let’s hope we can win and give the whole
country something to celebrate,” Diego
Forlan, Uruguay striker.
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