A couple of my own personal comments: It took a while to get from my hotel to the stadium, so I didn´t manage to find the bars that everyone on here was talking about but I didn't see much difference between the before match atmosphere in CRC vis a vis the atmosphere in El Salvador. In fact, they were very similar if not identical. The seating was not well arranged and all USSF bought ticket holders were in the upper grandstand and had to fight for space just to stand. The stadium is a terrible structure that should be torn down. The day of the match, I walked by where the new stadium will be built. Much closer to the up and coming neighborhood and the Sabana Park. It seems that it is being built by the Chinese. The match sucked, as everyone knows. I could not enjoy it properly because the seating arrangements were so poor. In Barbados we had our own section, here we had to fight for a seat among the Tico supporters. I had to sit in a section of students from the University of Wyoming. This part really bothers me. I know that we are in Costa Rica and you are studying there or whatever, but why do you wear Costa Rican things and cheer for them? How many Ticos cheer for the US in the US? There was a guy displaying a Tico flag, girls wearing Saprissa shirts, kids with Tico headbands and face paint etc. All they knew how to chant was U-S-A over and over. They all had something brilliant to say about how the US was playing like, "just run toward the goal!" Things better get better on Saturday. I thought from the stands that Michael Bradley was worthless as was the US defence who decided to just sit around on all of the goals. I don't know why, but I feel like Jim Curtin would have been harsh and Onyewu/Bocanegra were soft. Goodbye San Jose, Costa Rica! Despite your advantages of being a small haven for the kosher traveler, I will not be coming back...unless you somehow end up hosting a World Cup.
I'll respectfully disagree with MHaifa's impression of the Estadio Saprissa - perhaps I've grown fond of it because of having gone there for Costa Rica's last two home matches, but I somehow felt that the lack of a pre-arranged section for the away supporters made for an authentic experience. I was all the way at the top of the Sombra Este, near the middle, with my friend and a couple of Ticos who are lifelong US supporters (seriously! One of them explained to me that after constantly hearing during his childhood about how much his parents couldn't stand our national team, he adopted them as a form of rebellion...hey, the more the merrier). We MADE our own section by waving flags and getting the attention of other Americans so that they'd sit near us - including ones from California, New York, Illinois, and a group from Mississippi, as well as my friend (a Peruvian) and a Swede on vacation with her friend from Los Angeles. And we were scrunched in right next to the Ticos - yes, there wasn't much seating space, but that didn't bother me in particular as I stood pretty much the whole time. Even better was being stuck in the middle of Costa Rican fans. All of them, although hoping for a victory, were cool with us, and the funniest moment was the first time we chanted. One of them who was right next to us decided to mock us with "USA, USA!" But the other Americans there actually thought it was for real and started chanting, and we went with it to the point that the Costa Ricans around us started whistling and drowned us out with a song that would eventually get the whole stadium pumped. Even if it was the only tool we had in the box ("We Will, We Will Rock You" petered out pretty quickly), it was fun to be able to toy with the Costa Ricans and piss them off every once in a while by reminding them that we were still there. And when it came time for the anthem, we belted it so loud that we could actually hear it throughout the stadium (thanks to the Costa Ricans for being respectful enough to remain silent as well). We were pumped, we were ready to will the team to victory and compete for sound with the thousands of Ticos surrounding us...and then Saborío and "Celsinho" (Borges) put out the fire. After that, some of the fans went silent, others (like the girls in front of me) started talking about vacation plans, and those of us still animated for the game beat our heads into the wall over how badly the first 15 went. What followed was 75 minutes (plus half-time) of my dream of seing the US win the first time I ever get to see them live dashed into pieces, while Costa Rica put on a clinic that their fans ate up, mocking the complaints about the turf with their slick, controlled play. Side note: I will say one thing bad about the stadium, though, and that is that the stairs have such a high slope that one seriously fears falling over when going down them. After the third goal, the Costa Ricans started a chant: "¡Venga, que venga México!..." I missed the rest, but the gist of it was, "Bring on Mexico, we're done with this one." And 5 minutes from the end, the majority of the American "section" left to the jeers of the Ticos, although those of us who stayed to the end did manage to wholheartedly cheer for the penalty. And at the end, we walked out safely, trouble-free. Unfortunately, my story comes with a prologue: since I'm still here for the next two months to finish up the semester, for the rest of the week I've had/will have to hear from all my classmates and the press about how their team ran us over - today, in my class we had a visit from the Costa Rican ambassador to Guatemala, and even she made reference to the beating we took - although they're more knowledgeable about the US team then the average American. e.g. For the last month they have been telling me their opinions on Donovan, Bradley "el hijo", Altidore "él juega en la 2da división en España, ¿verdad?", and Tim Howard "este mae que juega con Everton, y nuestro portero no logra ser titular en la liga nacional, que pena". All in all, I drank in the atmosphere (if not the game itself), but I seriously hope that the next time I get a chance to see the US play (note to the team: next time, please visit Florida while I'm there, ok?) it won't be another of their "worst-ever" performances.
I had a great time. I actually liked the stadium with its near vertical stands and the bounce I could feel at times. I didn't see any problems at all in the crowd or on the street. The clueless WY kids were pretty annoying, but they weren't too big of a deal. I didn't actually talk to any of them and didn't realize where they were from. On both CR's 2nd and 3rd, it was clear that the entire midfield and defense had broken down. Throughout, the players who looked like they cared about the result weren't effective--Torres and Bradley fell into that category. Other players were just poor. The Ticos wanted it throughout, maintained their shape, and deserved every bit of the result.
Myself and my son were there on the 'tour' with ole ole. This turned out to be a bit of a carve up us our Costa Rican guide could not distinguish between 'este' and 'oeste'. meaning we (and a few others from teh group) were denied entry to teh eastern side. So, we went round to the west, adn found ourselves the only two yanks in our section! No worries though - the locals were great, and my 16 year old boy fell in love about 8 times before kick off! Decent atmosphere, but not as loud as I thought it would be - if the stadium were a bowl it would be very intimidating. The US were crap - it has to be said, but all of the Ticos I talked to said that they played above themselves that night. Despite that, a great visit and a fun night - less worrying than Guatemala last year for sure. Would have been nice to have had a US section, but that sems beyond the combined abilities of the USSF, the CR federation and CONCACAF,
My wife and I arrived in San Jose at 5 pm from Arenal. Checked into Hotel Grano de Oro (very nice boutique hotel at Calle 30/Av. 2), ate dinner there, then caught a taxi to the game. Got within a block of the stadium at 6:45 before gridlock and police blockades stopped us, so we got out. Fare was 2800 colones, gave him 4000 colones (about $7) and a "Vamos Estados Unidos!" He laughed and gave me a fist bump. We headed to the sombra este. Guy who frisked me felt my camera (why the hell no cameras allowed anyway?), and the security honcho came over to confiscate it. He noticed I was American, so he told me softly "OK, here's the deal. You can keep it, but no pictures. Understand?" I said "Claro." and he let me go through. Hiked up to the Sombra Este and realized this was festival seating and we were going to have to scramble for seats among the Tico fans. Grabbed two recently abandoned seats between the circles about 12 rows up. We spotted the group of US fans but we didn't want to take the chance of our seats getting poached, so we stayed put. Atmosphere was great, the Ticos were in full throat an hour before kickoff (although they did slow down a bit after warmups...smart move) I did appreciate the whistles during our anthem getting shouted down while we sang. Ticos did not mistreat my wife and I in any way...they just left us alone and gave us some space. Several did shout "bye-bye!" as we left in the 80th minute to beat the crowds. As we were leaving, a few enterprising individuals were setting up grills on the sidewalk outside the stadium, others had rows of flags ready for the celebration. We went back to the area southwest of the stadium and grabbed the first cab we could find, and were back at our hotel by 10:15. I also disagree with MHaifa's harsh critique of Estadio Saprissa. So it's old, big deal. Ticos need to invest in street signs before they need a new stadium.
Cameras are allowed, but batteries don't, that's the reason. Maybe the guy just wanted that nobody noticed a camera had gone through. We don't want our main stadium being fined. Also I think all stadiums here are pretty ugly. In 2 years we're having a new national stadium, state of the art, donated by China, with bigger capacity. Probably is having field turf too. This might have been USA's last game at Saprissa.