World Cup Qualifying Preview: Costa Rica – Uruguay

So Near Yet So Far

After a two year qualifying campaign to reach the World Cup finals in South Africa it boils down to a two-game play-off for Costa Rica and Uruguay. Due to international time zones the winner of the tie will become the 32nd and last nation to qualify for the tournament next Wednesday. Before then however both nations will hope to lay the foundations for a win when the teams meet for the first leg.

The home side for the first game is Costa Rica and they will be looking to put pay to the heartbreak they suffered just last month when they let automatic qualification slip through their fingers. Jonathan Bornstein’s equalizer deep into second half injury time for the United States denied Costa Rica automatic passage to South Africa. Costa Rica led 2-0 at half time in Washington D.C. but came away will only a point to allow Honduras to take the third automatic spot. Los Tico’s manager Rene Simones must help put last month’s misery behind his players as they plot their entry through the back door.

Uruguay also had automatic qualification in their own hands when they played host to Argentina in their last game of the CONMEBOL series. A win for Uruguay in Montevideo would have lifted them to fourth place and automatic entry to the finals in South Africa. It was their visitors Argentina however who got the better of the encounter and forced Uruguay to go down the play-off route once more.

Haven’t We Been Here Before?

Despite never having their name etched on the trophy Costa Rica have developed a fine World Cup pedigree of late and have appeared in the last two editions of the finals.

They failed to make it past the first round in Germany and Korea/Japan but did fare a little better on their World Cup debut at Italia 90.

Costa Rica were placed in a group with Brazil in Italy and although they lost to the footballing superpower by a goal to nil they did defeat both Sweden and Scotland to book a place in the second round. They were eventually sent home in the knock out rounds by a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Czechoslovakia but nonetheless returned home heroes in what turned out to be a real watershed tournament for the Costa Ricans.

If Costa Rica have built their World Cup legacy in recent years then it has to be said that Uruguay have been living off theirs for a little too long. After getting their World Cup story off to dream start by winning two early editions of the tournament Uruguay have not advanced past the second round for 30 years. In fact the nation has failed to qualify for the finals on five of the last eight occasions.

Uruguay missed out on the 2006 World Cup in Germany after defeat in an intercontinental play-off against Australia, the very same opponents they had beaten to advance to the finals in 2002.

FORM GUIDE

Costa Rica

October 14 United States 2 – 2 Costa Rica
October 10 Costa Rica 4 – 0 Trinidad and Tobago
September 9 El Salvador 1 – 0 Costa Rica
September 5 Costa Rica 0 – 3 Mexico
August 12 Honduras 4 – 0 Costa Rica

Uruguay

October 14 Uruguay 0 – 1 Argentina
October 10 Ecuador 1 – 2 Uruguay
September 9 Uruguay 3 – 1 Colombia
September 5 Peru 1 – 0 Uruguay
August 12 Algeria 1 – 0 Uruguay


TEAM NEWS

Costa Rica’s Brazilian coach Simoes will be calling on the experience of Walter Centeno and Luis Marin. Both players are looking to appear in their third consecutive World Cup finals which will be a record for any footballer from the CONCACAF region. Marin in particular will be charged with keeping the defense organized alongside Gilberto Martinez of Brescia and the home-based Michael Umana.

Coach Simoes has had his Costa Rican based players together for over a fortnight now and has been working on tactics as well as helping them over the demoralizing result in Washington. The foreign based contingent joined up with the core of the squad at the beginning of the week and their manager will have left nobody in any doubt of the task at hand.

The most important player for Costa Rica could turn out to be the pitch at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in San José. Due to the long tropical rainy seasons in the country Costa Rica have special dispensation from FIFA to play on artificial turf and the surface could well catch the Uruguayans off guard.

In an attempt to combat the effects of the pitch Uruguayan boss Oscar Washington Tabarez has had his players use a similar pitch in training. The squad traveled to Guatemala at the start of the week to avoid any long haul flights too close to kick off. At their camp in Guatemala there is a similar pitch to the one in place in San José and Tabarez hopes that by playing on it the element of surprise will be eradicated.
Tabarez is without Cristian Rodriguez, Jorge Fucile and Edinson Cavani in his traveling party but with names such as Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez on the plane the visitors are still packing the talent to get a result.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Costa Rica

Bryan Ruiz goes into the double header in fine goalscoring form for both club and country. Under the stewardship of former England manager Steve McClaren the FC Twente forward has found the net nine times in 13 appearance in Holland as well as banging in a further six for Costa Rica. Ruiz can play anywhere across the front and if he can pop up with just a single goal it could be enough to swing the tie in favour of Costa Rica.

Uruguay

Luis Suarez is another who does his damage in the Dutch league and the Ajax captain’s performances this season has seen him become one of Europe’s most coveted players. Interest from the likes of Manchester United has been alerted to the 22-year-old who already has nine goals and 25 caps to his name despite his tender age.

PREDICTION

With these games effectively being a pair of cup finals I expect the first game to be especially tight. It will be up to Costa Rica to bring the game to their visitors as Uruguay will be more than happy to keep the score at 0-0 before playing in front of 70,000 in Montevideo. If Costa Rica show a little ambition at the ground where they won eight of their qualifying games and Uruguay fail to adapt to the surface I can see the hosts taking the lead. It will then be up to Uruguay to show a little of their quality to get back on level terms.

Costa Rica 1 – 1 Uruguay

Tim Sturtridge, Goal.com

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