U.S. World Cup Foe Costa Rica Could Turn
Tough
By Grahame L. Jones
The road to the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa has just turned a little bit more
tricky for the United States.
Not because it plays away to Honduras in its
next-to-last qualifying game.
Not because the goals have not been flowing
as freely as desired.
Not because its final qualifying match is
against Costa Rica in Washington.
But because Costa Rica on Tuesday fired
Rodrigo Kenton as coach. The dismissal was
almost inevitable. Under Kenton, who once
had the team in first place, Costa Rica had
lost its last three games in a row, all by
shutouts. He had to go.
The reason his departure could be a problem
for the U.S. is because of who his successor
might be. Four names are being talked about,
each of them a far more experienced coach
than Kenton. They are, in no particular
order, Leo Beenhakker, Jose Pekerman,
Enrique Meza and Hans Westerhof.
Beenhakker, recently fired after failing to
qualify Poland for the World Cup, has
credentials that include coaching the Dutch
national team, not to mention Ajax Amsterdam
and Real Madrid. He qualified Trinidad and
Tobago for the 2006 World Cup and the Soca
Warriors are Costa Rica's next opponent.
Pekerman coached Argentina to the
quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup.
Previously, he had won three Under-20 World
Cups with Argentina as well as a gold medal
at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Meza, a former Mexico national team coach,
has won four Mexican league titles,
including three with Toluca and one with
Pachuca, as well as two CONCACAF Champions
Cups and one Copa Sudamericana.
Westerhof has coached the Dutch Under-21
national team and such clubs as PSV
Eindhoven, Ajax Amsterdam and Chivas de
Guadalajara. He was coach of Chivas USA for
a while before being replaced by Bob
Bradley, now the U.S. coach.
In other words, each of the four men is
perfectly capable of getting Costa Rica past
Trinidad and Tobago and, assuming a U.S.
loss at Honduras, putting enormous stress on
the Americans in Washington in a game that
could decide who goes directly to South
Africa and who goes into a playoff with a
potentially tough South American opponent.
Costa Rica, under Kenton, defeated the U.S.,
3-1, in San Jose, Costa Rica on June 3.
In short, the U.S. road to the World Cup is
taking an uphill turn.
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