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COSTA RICA |
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Simoes Must Rebuild “Shocked” Costa Rica’s
Spirits
Costa Rica coach Rene Simoes says he must
find a way to lift his shattered team after
automatic qualification for the World Cup
finals slipped through their grasp in the
last seconds of the final CONCACAF
qualifier.
Costa Rica gave up a two-goal lead as they
drew 2-2 with the United States at the RFK
Stadium—American Jonathan Bornstein
equalizing in the fifth minute of injury
time.
The result allowed Honduras, who won 1-0 in
El Salvador, to take the third automatic
spot for South Africa behind the U.S and
Mexico while Costa Rica must now face
Uruguay in a tough two-legged play-off.
“First I have to rebuild their spirits. They
are in the dumps. This was a shock for
them,” said Brazilian Simoes, who was in
charge of just his second game with the
team.
“Everything was going fine up until the last
minute. The game just ended and its just
very sad. Now we just have to start working
again,” he said.
Striker Rolando Fonseca said that he
believed the team’s performance in the U.S
capital showed they are capable of beating
Uruguay and reaching next year’s finals.
“We lost under circumstances that hurt us
all but now more than ever it demonstrates
to us that whoever we play we will go to the
World Cup,” he said.
Simoes, who coached Jamaica at the 1998
World Cup finals, missed the decisive final
minutes after he was sent off for arguing
with the referee and the fourth official and
had to be escorted from the bench by stadium
security.
The Brazilian said he had argued with the
referee about a mix-up when the wrong number
was produced for a substitution but the
official initially refused to accept the
change of number.
“I had to tell him ‘please change that’ it
was a mistake but he didn’t accept that. It
was unfortunate.” |
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