WOQ: Costa Rica vs. Canada [R]

[hamiltonfan]

Canada will face off vs Costa Rica tonight. This game will be the deciding factor for who will be 1st and 2nd in our pool. The game will be telivised on Rogers SportsNet

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/tvschedule/tvsked_sport.php?region=ONTARIO&schedule_id=7

[hamiltonfan]

From here:

Canada faces Costa Rica

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—Canada plays Costa Rica tonight in a match that may well determine whether the women's soccer team qualifies for the Athens Olympics.

The winner gets first place in Group A of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament and a favourable semifinal against Mexico, which is ranked 30th in the world. (Canada is ranked 11th.)

The loser must face the United States, the world No.2 and the tournament favourite, in the other semifinal.

The Americans, who beat Mexico 2-0 yesterday, haven't allowed a goal in 589 minutes of play.

Both semifinal winners qualify for the Olympics regardless of what happens in the final.

Canada, which won its first two pool games by 6-0 scores, has an advantage in that it will get first place on goal differential if it ties Costa Rica.

The eight-team qualifying tournament covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.

[jonovision]

By my calculations, the game actually starts at 9pm et, 8pm ct, 6pm pt, etc. Can somebody confirm this?

[codegoat]

Anybody know anything? I can't find any information about the game.

Anybody know what the score is?

[DJT]

FT Canada 2 Costa Rica 1

From yahoo.com:

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- Goals by Christine Latham and Aysha Jamani led Canada to a 2-1 victory over Costa Rica on Monday in women's Olympic soccer qualifying.

The host team will face the United States, winner of the other group, on Wednesday, while Canada meets Mexico. The winners of those games will go to Athens.

Canada, which finished fourth at the 2003 World Cup, pressed hard at the start of the match at Costa Rica's National Stadium. Latham struck six minutes into the match. Jamani added a second goal at 20 minutes with a shot that went through the legs of defender Monica Salazar, confusing goalkeeper Alejandra Alvarez.

Shirley Cruz scored for Costa Rica in the 63rd minute.

In the evening's first game, Raiza Gutierrez scored two goals for Panama in a 3-0 victory over Jamaica.

Gutierrez broke a scoreless tie with a penalty kick at 60 minutes and added a second goal at 81 minutes. Maritzenia Bedoya scored four minutes later.

[kclee]

After watching the first half, the only thing worse than the play is the refereeing. It is inept and bordering on corrupt. Wait until the Central American women actually improve because when you combine that with the biased calls Canada will be in trouble.

[Gian-Luca]

It's got to be somewhat disconcerting that we could only beat them by a goal (after watching the first half I would have expected a 4-0 victory, as I couldn't see how Costa Rica could possibly score against us - I think I might just stay up another 20 minutes to see how that happened), especially when that 2nd goal was somewhat lucky with one Costa Rican falling on her ass to let Jamani through & the other completely whiffing on it to allow the ball to roll into the net.

It looked like in the first half we were playing a better possession game (or at least much closer to one than what I saw against Panama or Jamaica), but still not where we should be in that regard. We'll have to be better against the Mexicans.

[Michael Crampton]

Yes, the refereeing was absolutely shameful and I hate that Gerry and Helen keep trying to be polite about it. We've got to stop being so typically Canadian and stand up and say that we're not going to take it any more.

The problem is however that the Canadian women end up playing completely naive when they start encountering this sort of refereeing. When the ref is making bad calls you've got to be extra careful about not giving her any reason to feel vindicated by going in for legitimately bad tackles - which Canada does again and again. If the ref isn't letting you lean in with the body on 50-50 balls ADAPT DAMN IT! Canada had exactly the same problem in the WWC and don't seem to have learned anything. Brutal Pellurud soccer can't be helping in this regard either.

Props to Latham for a good goal. I've bashed her before and still don't think she has good enough touch to be a national team starter (see the second half when Lang put a ball on her foot behind the defence and she wasn't even close to controlling it) but that was an excellent finish.

I really can't understand what Swiatek (sp?) has done to get benched though. LeBlanc is sketchy at best so I don't see how she can be considered the most "consistent" performer. Not fault of hers on the goal though - a really great finish that showed the technical skill so rarely seen (except from Sinclair) in Canada's play.

All in all another pretty depressing game though. It'll be a real shame if the ladies don't get by Mexico as the Olympics are a real experience for all the athletes who get the oppurtunity to even be there and to most Canadians I can only imagine that they would consider the tournament more important than even the WWC which would give the program more great exposure. If they fail to make it though the only fault will be their own. Here's to hoping that they show up against Mexico.

Mike.

[The Ref]

I like the women team and have respect for them and their coaching staff. However this last game against Costa Rica was perhaps the worst game of all times. They did not deserved to win, even a tie would have been too much. After their second goal they just fell apart. No motivation and desire. The only two players that I would exempt from my wrath are Latham and Neil. I think it will take a huge turn around to beat Mexico. I thought that sending Lang in for Jamani was a good decision at the time as Jamani was getting on the way of others. But Lang did nothing except complaining about the rough play. The team would have been better leaving Jamani in. Moscato in for Hooper, that backfired big time also. The only good thing about the referee was that she was consistently inconsistent. I wonder what Pellerud sees on LeBlanc.

[Gian-Luca]

I'm sympathetic towards Moscato. She was dispossesed from behind while trying to play a possession game. She had the right idea, what she (and the rest of the team needs) is more practice at it. Everybody on the team was guilty of giving the ball away, most did so more often than Carmelina. I can't blame Pellerud for taking those players like Hooper, etc.(all with yellow cards) out of the game, they all seemed on the verge of getting sent off with their rough & mis-timed tackles (especially with an un-necessarily trigger-happy Ref).

This game shows best of all why we need to pick up the possession game. If we're defending a one goal lead its obviously better to pass the ball around than simply kick long balls either straight back to the opposition or hopeful air-balls in the general vicinity of one of the strikers.

[redhat]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

This game shows best of all why we need to pick up the possession game. If we're defending a one goal lead its obviously better to pass the ball around than simply kick long balls either straight back to the opposition or hopeful air-balls in the general vicinity of one of the strikers.

It's quite apparent during the game that the "long ball and chase" mentality that Pellerud may have installed will not work in the future.

Although the refereeing was ATROCIOUS and the "gamesmanship" that

the Ticos have adopted have made their mark on the scoreline, some

changes are definitely necessary, if your long balls are going nowhere. The game was definitely not pleasant to watch.

It's also unfortunate that Jamani and Sinclair couldn't bury their

chances when they had them. Thank goodness for Sharolta Nonen and

Sinclair, who definitely stood out for Canada. Jamani, for her age,

was fearless and always looked for offense.

Pellerud will have to make those adjustments for Mexico, or a similar

fate to the Men's Olympic Team will occur.

[redhat]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

This game shows best of all why we need to pick up the possession game. If we're defending a one goal lead its obviously better to pass the ball around than simply kick long balls either straight back to the opposition or hopeful air-balls in the general vicinity of one of the strikers.

It's quite apparent during the game that the "long ball and chase" mentality that Pellerud may have installed will not work in the future.

Although the refereeing was ATROCIOUS and the "gamesmanship" that

the Ticos have adopted have made their mark on the scoreline, some

changes are definitely necessary, if your long balls are going nowhere. The game was definitely not pleasant to watch.

It's also unfortunate that Jamani and Sinclair couldn't bury their

chances when they had them. Thank goodness for Sharolta Nonen and

Sinclair, who definitely stood out for Canada. Jamani, for her age,

was fearless and always looked for offense.

Pellerud will have to make those adjustments for Mexico, or a similar

fate to the Men's Olympic Team will occur.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I'm sympathetic towards Moscato. She was dispossesed from behind while trying to play a possession game. She had the right idea, what she (and the rest of the team needs) is more practice at it. Everybody on the team was guilty of giving the ball away, most did so more often than Carmelina. I can't blame Pellerud for taking those players like Hooper, etc.(all with yellow cards) out of the game, they all seemed on the verge of getting sent off with their rough & mis-timed tackles (especially with an un-necessarily trigger-happy Ref).

This game shows best of all why we need to pick up the possession game. If we're defending a one goal lead its obviously better to pass the ball around than simply kick long balls either straight back to the opposition or hopeful air-balls in the general vicinity of one of the strikers.

I acknowledge what you think and although don't agree, I respect your assessment of style and other considerations. It is interesting what the Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion says about the game in their article (and I translate) called:

Fell as result of logic

Over the stadium two realities could be seen, the Costa Rican, pure enthusiasm and Canada's a rival superior and hardened in the better circuit of femenine football.

At the end, the logic prevailed, in spite of the honorable reaction of the nationals and Canada ended wining 2-1 to take first place in Group A Pre-olympic....

article continues with other stuff.

[The Ref]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I'm sympathetic towards Moscato. She was dispossesed from behind while trying to play a possession game. She had the right idea, what she (and the rest of the team needs) is more practice at it. Everybody on the team was guilty of giving the ball away, most did so more often than Carmelina. I can't blame Pellerud for taking those players like Hooper, etc.(all with yellow cards) out of the game, they all seemed on the verge of getting sent off with their rough & mis-timed tackles (especially with an un-necessarily trigger-happy Ref).

This game shows best of all why we need to pick up the possession game. If we're defending a one goal lead its obviously better to pass the ball around than simply kick long balls either straight back to the opposition or hopeful air-balls in the general vicinity of one of the strikers.

I acknowledge what you think and although don't agree, I respect your assessment of style and other considerations. It is interesting what the Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion says about the game in their article (and I translate) called:

Fell as result of logic

Over the stadium two realities could be seen, the Costa Rican, pure enthusiasm and Canada's a rival superior and hardened in the better circuit of femenine football.

At the end, the logic prevailed, in spite of the honorable reaction of the nationals and Canada ended wining 2-1 to take first place in Group A Pre-olympic....

article continues with other stuff.

[sstackho]

Can someone please tell Helen that she does not have to give her opinion on EVERY SINGLE foul call made in the game? And when she's not sure why the whistle was blown, she doesn't have to tell us that she doesn't know??

[Chet]

I only saw the second half because I was curling. It sounds like Canada played better in the first half. But the second was pretty awful.

Cruz deserves credit for the Costa Rica goal. It started with a blunder by the Canadian defense, but Cruz finished pretty well. I thought she was the best player on the field.

Canada's performance in all three games has been very disappointing. This doesn't look anything like the team we saw in the World Cup.

I'm not buying the argument that it's due to a lack of fitness because of the tournament being played in late winter. If the CSA was serious about the Athens Olympics, they should have made sure there was adequate preparation. Either they don't take the Olympics seriously, or they were way too complacent coming into the qualifying. They probably assumed Canada could beat the other CONCACAF teams easily, fit or not, and that the qualifying tournament was just a formality. Whatever the reason, it was a conscious decision to come into this tournament unfit. So we've no right to use it as an excuse.

Given the trouble Costa Rica was able to give us, I'm not feeling terribly confident going into the game against Mexico.

[mtlfan]

quote:Originally posted by sstackho

Can someone please tell Helen that she does not have to give her opinion on EVERY SINGLE foul call made in the game? And when she's not sure why the whistle was blown, she doesn't have to tell us that she doesn't know??

Turn the sound off like many people do, myself included.

[The Beaver]

Okay, The Beaver was stoned on some of BC's finest bud last night, which generally makes him real laid-back and loving and forgiving, but either the stuff was mostly oregano, or I'm losing my mind, because that game pissed the hell out of me.

First off, like G-L wisely noted, our women came out and seemed to try to play a better possession game in the first half. I'll give them credit for the attempt, and in some instances they were very effective indeed. A dose of progress was made in the first half. The second half was not so good. It is probably a better idea to let Latham and Hooper strike, and put Sinclair just behind them like an attacking midfielder. Hooper is out of shape and out of sync in the midfield (yes, I know I thought she'd be good there) and should either play jumper or striker. In fact, the more I think about it, I feel she would be better off playing with Sharolta in the center of defense. Keep Morneau out left, find somebody who can run and pass to play on the right. Hermus is damned cute and bloody strong, but I find her pace lacking and passing a bit suspect. (Though, to give her credit, I sense she is trying to play a more sophisticated game.)

But, the reason for my ire: 1) The officiating WAS criminal. Absolutely crap! Forget about the women wearing tighter shorts. If you want to earn a larger audience for the women's game, then you MUST have credible officiating. We saw the problems crappy officiating brought the Japan/Korea World Cup, and now we continue to see it in games like the one last night. 2) Helen and Gerry were flipping awful. They are usually mediocre or poor, but last night they were painful. The officiating was shi*te, yet they spent more time blaming our players for non-existent fouls. And, I know someone here posted something suggesting that our girls should have adapted to the poor officiating. Well, I agree and disagree. First off, they did adapt, the biggest sign of this being how damned calm they were most of the time, especially when the stupid calls were mounting faster than a rabbit on Viagra. Secondly, a team should not adapt their game too too much because of officiating. Canada is a tough checking, tight marking side--as are the Germans and Americans and Swedes. We cannot change our game because of a shi*te central american referree. (Are there any good central american refs? This is not rhetorical. I want to know.)

Finally, I am pissed off with the second half performance. We were a goal away from killing Costa Rica and their boisterous crowd. We were the better team indeed, but we did not show it consistently enough. Lang is out of shape. Hooper is out of shape. Timko must be injured, because she needs to be in the midfield. Latham and Neil and Sinclair, along with Nonen and Morneau are looking okay. Nonen, to be honest, is great. She needs to organize her D, though.

Enough from me. I wanted to kill the ref and helen and gerry last night, so I smoked a bowl instead and watched hockey hilights. The Habs beat the Devils--that made me smile!!

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by sstackho

Can someone please tell Helen that she does not have to give her opinion on EVERY SINGLE foul call made in the game? And when she's not sure why the whistle was blown, she doesn't have to tell us that she doesn't know??

She's acquired Lenarduzzi-disease, in that she is beginning to immediately point out what each player could have done differently on every single play that doesn't work to 100% perfection, culminating in her ripping apart of Latham for committing the cardinal sin of laying the ball off for Andrea Neil to hit with her right foot, instead of nicely laying it off for Neil to hit with her left. When Neil (an old buddy of Stoumbos who can do no wrong in her eyes) missed with her well-struck right-footed shot, it was somehow all Latham's fault for making such a nice lay-off. Even though it was a good effort by both & one of the better plays Canada had in the game, because it didn't work to 100% perfection, the Sportsnet code written by Lenarduzzi (and perfected during the 2001 WYC) seems to mandate that it must be ripped to shreds. Thankfully I don't think Craig Forrest subscribes to the code.

[mtlfan]

First draft of letter to sponsors.

Enough is enough.

Please feel free to add ideas although I want it to be brif and to the point.

Letter to CIBC, Whirlpool, Adidas.

I believe your decision buy advertising for the coverage of Canada's National Soccer team is a solid investment except for one detail.

The viewers are dumbfounded that although they have a competant color commentator available they choose to use an incompetant commentator.

I strongly suggest that in your negotiations regarding any further matches you insist that Craig Forrest replace Helen Stoumbos.

I don't believe it is a good marketing strategy to be associated with incompentance.

[Guest Ed]

Your post needs some work: "dumfounded", "incompetant",

"incompentance" ?? Oh yeah baby!!!

[The Ref]

Ed, you funny man. All kidding aside, maybe each one of us should write to Sportsnet about good ol Helen. Her commentary is indeed geared for morons. Morons we are not. People that tune in to watch these games have a fair knowledge of it. We know what is right and what is wrong, how the game is played, what players do, how officials do. We do not need Helen to tell things so basic that is rightfully annoying. I am sure she knows a lot about the game, so she ought to elevete the level of her commentary a lot, a big lot. Probably nobody at Sportsnet knows much about the game to judge her performance. Gerry is just happy to have her there and probably feels at a disadvantage to criticize her.

[Rodway]

I agree that Stoumbos has no business being within 50 feet of a microphone. But lets not forget about Dobson, he's just as bad or worse.

How about Sinclair's goal against Jamaica, it took them 20 seconds to figure out the ref signaled a goal rather than an offside. I realize they are only calling the game off a TV monitor, but come on, the girls high-five'n each other and a kick-off at center field should be a dead give away!

[Auger9]

http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=54447&itype=113&iCategoryID=0

CANADA vs. COSTA RICA TURNS INTO A SUPER CLASSICOThe Canada vs. Costa Rica clash yesterday at Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero turned into what was definitely the most exciting match of the tournament and perhaps produced the most stirring moment in CONCACAF women’s soccer history.

???

how boring are the games in group B that this was most exciting?

***

also, the ref was on crack or something, she's lucky we didn't beat her ass.

[Gian-Luca]

Instead of replacing Helen with Craig, how about replacing her with Holger?

In all seriousness, I think Dobson has to be replaced first (though not necessarily by Holger), on both the men's & women's teams broadcasts. If we want to sell the Canadian game to the general Canadian public, Dobson is not the way to go. Not just because of his lack of knowledge of soccer, but also his voice (which isn't a classic broadcasting voice by any stretch) and his extremely poor delivery.