Don't argue with results Fantasy: How right you are! Costa played worse today than when they lost to Barbados during the last WCQ round! And Cuba? Come on, they play baseball, not soccer! Costa Rica is playing so poorly as to create the appearance that Cuba is actually playing good soccer! Reality: Sampson's job today was for his team to score goals and get a result. The Ticos scored two goals and earned a draw. Cuba is now required to travel to Costa Rica and win; they can also advance if they score three goals and draw. Neither scenario is likely. Costa Rica is in the driver's seat, and they can probably thank the 4-5-1 formation used by Sampson. Cuba is good and it's just a short matter of time before Cuba is the top team in the Caribbean.
I think it's funny that no matter which country you come from, US, Mexico, Costa Rica, etc... if a smaller team starts improving and playing better soccer, they don't like to give credit to the team. By the looks of the Haiti-Jamaica game, Cuba vs. Costa, and Suriname vs. Guatemala, the CONCACAF is getting stronger which is a good thing and isn't a result of being fluke games. Just accept the fact that the CONCACAF comepition is getting better and move on.
Well, everyone knew Haiti-Jamaica would be close and Costa Rica-Cuba certainly isn't a mismatch, even if most predicted a comfortable CR win (altho I said that I thought Cuba would go thru on PKs; which I don't think is likely now, as they need to either win or draw while scoring 3+ goals in Costa Rica to go thru; a 2-2 draw would send it to extra time). The ties that suprised me are Guatemala-Suriname and Honduras-Netherlands Antillles, both of which I thought would be complete blowouts; if the minnows are indeed improving, it's certainly a good thing for CONCACAF as a whole.
That's because SS has been planted by the US Soccer Federation to make sure Costa Rica doesn't make the Hex.
Costa Rica played terribly!! It would have been better had we lost this game, get Sampson sacked and get an appropiate coach for the other game. Sampons knows nothing about Costa Rican football, he might know lots of football and he might be a good coach but he is not a good fit for the Costa Rican team, thats plain obvious. An assistant had to be brought for the series against Cuba so he could help Sampson with terms Costa Rican players use and with the Costa Rican mentality.. its craziness he has been coach for months, these are things he should al least know by now. The result is bad, on paper Costa Rica should have won, on the other hand im more dissappointed by the way we played.. even if we had won, i would still be dissappointed. Presently Costa Rica is in no condition of making it to the WC, changes are needed. Cuba was as good as I thought it would be, out of the top teams we had the most difficult draw by playing Cuba. Anyways a 2-2 score isnt that bad, what's bad was the way we played. Sampson was ripped today by the sport media in Costa Rica, everything from playing with a line of 4 defenders to not knowing what the heck he is doing i.e. lining up the wrong players and using an incorrect formation. If u speak spanish and feel like reading the most popular Costa Rican newspaper ripping Sampson go ahead here: http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2004/junio/13/deportes1.html
If nacion is ripping Sampson for using four defenders, then they seem to have forgotten that Costa Rica lined up with a 4-3-3 in almost every match in the last hexagonal. Now you know why they're called the "press." It's their self-appointed duty to provide pressure to the coach, using negative reinforcement, with the goal of assuring results.