Costa Rica expected tomorrow
-GFF urge local support
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
November 20, 2003
The mighty Costa Rican Under-23 football team is expected in Guyana tomorrow morning to engage Guyana in the return second round game of the Olympic Qualifier competition.
The match, to be played at the Blairmont ground on Sunday will decide which of the two teams will move ahead to the final of the competition which will be staged in Mexico next year.
Guyana returned home on Tuesday after being whipped 7-0 by host Costa Rica last Saturday in the first match of the home and away tie.
At a press conference held at the Guyana Football Federation headquarters, Technical Director Neider Dos Santos disclosed that his side was defeated by a "very professional" team in the first match.
"They (Costa Rica) are professionals. We can't compare Costa Rica with Trinidad and Tobago. The difference is too big. Professionals do nothing else but play football," Dos Santos told the media.
He added that while the local team has been together for approximately five months the Costa Ricans have been around for 10 years which was evident in the football they played. .
The Brazilian noted that even though overwhelmed in the latter stages of the game after one player was red carded, Guyana had a few close shaves.
"We had three clear opportunities to score in the match. One was when the match was 0-0 and Devon Millington put the ball out. Another one was when the game was 2-0 in the first half, and Millington was alone but the goalkeeper made a good save. The third one was at the very beginning of the second half and the match was still 2-0. `Jackie Chan' was alone with the goalkeeper who again saved brilliantly. Of course the result was not good. I can never say that a 7-0 result is good," he added.
Dos Santos claimed that contrary to reports the Guyanese players were not affected by altitude while playing in the Central American country.
"As far as I know Costa Rica doesn't have an altitude problem. Altitude starts to affect players from about 1800 metres above sea level. Costa Rica is about 1100 metres above sea level," Dos Santos said. He explained that the instances of players bleeding through the nose came about as a result of the cold and very dry atmosphere.
Guyana go into Sunday's game needing to win by eight goals. The already herculean task has be compounded with the news that talented wing-back Walter `Boyd' Moore and fellow defender Orlando Jilgeous, described by Dos Santos as two key players will be absent after both picked up cards in Costa Rica.
Moore, known to be the work horse of the team, was red-carded in the 77th minute of the game while Jilgeous collected his second yellow card in two games.
However, despite the setback Dos Santos stressed that his side will be going all out to redeem itself at the Blairmont ground where they have only lost one of three international matches.
GFF president Colin Klass likened the 7-0 whipping to bad patches on the road to success. "It is not the end of the road for football. In order to achieve we will have to pass through these things," Klass said.
"More exposure will bring more experience as we go along," Klass said. "We will learn as we go on and it could only come by exposure. We are hoping that Sunday will be memorable for Guyana.
Insisting that all is not lost Klass urged all and sundry to
be in Berbice on Sunday to lend support as was done when Guyana played St Lucia and Barbados.
"I want to urge supporters to wear green and gold, the colours the local side will don on Sunday, to show support," Klass said. "Green and gold will be our colours for Sunday. Let us come out and support our team."