Didn't see anything else on it. 1-0 Costa Rica by 1st half PK. Telefutura just showed the highlights and had a dead on angle of the PK call (which Galavision didn't have during the live broadcast). I played it frame by frame and it looks pretty clear to me that the ball hit the Canadian defender in the chest. Almost right in the numbers. Canada get jobbed on that one.
Canada seems to have a habit of getting screwed by the refs, like in their WCQ against Honduras (although I didn't mind, since Honduras is my 2nd favorite NT). Gotta love CONCACAF...
Canada also missed a good dozen chances in the second half, tho they did score on the offside play. Brennan did a lot of really intense-faced running, Hume was a bit better. But Canada has to finish. They played well in the back. Their defenders passing was better than their middies.
But at the half-hour a decision by Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast turned the game. After a blocked free kick from the top of the Canadian area, the Ticos lobbed the ball back into the area. The Costa Rican winger, stationed at the left corner of the area, attempted to swing a ball across the box but Bernier seemed to have blocked the pass with his chest. Prendergast however pointed directly to the spot. Jafet Soto stepped up to the spot-kick and slammed his left-footed shot to the left of Sutton, who had guessed correctly but could not get a hand to the shot. From canadasoccer.com
Two of our defenders were middies. So that kind of figures. Solid444> the Brennan tackle that earned yellow was late and ridiculous. Other than that I think you're out to lunch. For every heavy legitimate challenge by Canada there was a good Tico swan dive with a triple roll on the sod. That being said the card to Ruiz for diving was a bad call too. No surprise that Pendergast threw the cards around. cheers, hobbes
Strange game--Canada only decided to play in the last 5 minutes with a man down. The best thing that happened to Canada was the insertion of Costa Rican right back Geiner Segura, who belongs in a rec league somewhere, should've seen yellow at least twice (he did once) and nearly gifted Canada a flick-on own goal. The obvious changes are to start Hume and Serieux (sp?) and bench the awful Gerba/Simpson pairing. I sense a coaching or motivational problem here, which is surprising from Frank Yallop. When a team only steps up the attack with 5 minutes left and 10 men, something is wrong. Why weren't they doing that for the other 85 mins.?
Best chance for Canada was when De Rosario was fed a through ball, took a massive dribble that sent him yards away from goal, and then tried some sort of corkscrew shot into the far corner, which instead yards above the bar and towards the opposite corner flag. He was supposed to have a one on one with the goalie off that pass, and instead he turned it into a soccer equivalent of the baseline fadeaway jumper.
Pendergrast also threw our captain out of the game, two yellows, one for arguing the obviously bogus pk call and then another debatable card with 10 minutes to go. So our backline will become even more makeshift for the US match, not like we needed to give you guys another advantage over us.......
Canada was cheated on the penalty kick but the second yellow on Kenna was an easy one, I thought. In fact, I saw it as a pretty deplorable play. He ostensibly went up for a header but had his leg out to kick the other player. The rest of his body was turned sideways and was rotating away from the ball. He was never going to get to that header. He led with his cleats and the rest of him stayed a good foot or even two feet from the action. That's the sort of play that should get a player removed from the field. (But I should bracket all this by saying again that Canada was cheated on the penalty kick. It must be incredibly frustrating.)
I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way I did. Watching that game, Canada was doing the stuff that I expected more out of Costa Rica. Canada played like a bunch of hacks.
I didn't see the whole game but watched large parts of it. I thought the penalty was dodgy. The Canadian captain (Mc Kenna?) was an idiot for getting that yellow for dissent--he needs to have a better understanding of his role in that situation (or wait until he has refs that don't speak English). I kept waiting for a make-up call later in the game.
In other news, Bernier is now at the University of Washington Medical Center, recuperating from emergency surgery to remove the extra arm from his chest. The operation was performed at the Prendergast Institute for Orthopedic Surgery, which is best known for successfully performing a similar operation to remove an extra arm from the forehead of United States center back Gregg Berhalter. Costa Rican team officials, when asked about their country's involvement in both incidents, declined comment.
With the level of play and technique they displayed yesterday, I dont think they know how to dive correctly, let alone roll on the floor.
I watched the game. Canada really sucks, and they deserved to lose. They did have a couple decent chances to score but didn't even really test the keeper. They had a decent amount of possession, but had no ideas offensively. They really sucked with their crosses. Costa Rica was the better team, but they didn't play that well.
I could care less about Costa Ricans, all i know is that they have more class and a lot more technique than Canada.
The only team Costa Rica has more class than is Honduras, and that's not saying much. Canada has tons more class then either of those play-faking cheats.