10/6/2007 - 20:33(EST)

Costa Rica beats Guadeloupe

Costa Rica defeated Guadeloupe 1-0 in the teams’ third match of Group A in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. With the victory, the “Ticos” secured their quarterfinal spot as the second team, and Guadeloupe will need to wait for the other groups play to see if they qualify as one of the best two third qualified teams.

11/JUN/2007 – Costa Rica needed a win against the surprising team of Guadeloupe. The Caribbean nation won their last game against Canada, which put them atop of Group A. Meanwhile, Costa Rica tied Haiti and endangered their qualifying chances. They were looking forward to a victory over Guadeloupe, and hoping for a Canadian victory over Haiti, in order to have no problems to go on to the next round.

The “Ticos” started up strong and at the tenth minute they had already enjoyed two great scoring chances. Barrientos first, at the 7th, and then Saborio, two minutes later, were the first Costa Ricans to knock on Grandel’s door. But it was Walter Centeno, once again, the one who capitalized for the red team. At the 14th minute, a magic right-footed free kick by the Costa Rican leader put them ahead of Guadeloupe, and so their chances of staying in the tournament were intact.

The goal shocked Guadeloupe, and Aurelien Capoue managed to keep things under control for the islanders. He was actually the first one to try his luck against Porras, but his top of the box shot went awry.

Costa Rica kept up their high-speed style of playing, and Guadeloupe showed no resemblance to the carefree team that beat Canada two nights before in this same stadium. At the 30th minute Costa Rica came knocking again and they almost put the 2-0 on the scoreboard. Saborio with yet another staggering run on the right flank crossed a ball through the area, which no one seemed to jump high enough to connect with it. Alleman made a huge effort on the opposite post and with a diving header sent the ball against the side netting.

While their attacking game kept flowing, Centeno was still the most dangerous threat for Grandel. He tried a long-range shot, for about 45 yards out, at the 36th minute, and then another free kick at the 40th, which made the Costa Rican fans jump out of their seats.

Before the end of the first half Guadeloupe tried to dust some pressure off and almost capitalized on the frailty of the Costa Rican defense. Capoue and Fleurival, Guadeloupe’s most inspired players on the first half, had two good chances to tie things up, but Porras denied them in both occasions.

A split second before the whistle, Barrentos tried his luck against Grandel once again, but the players went to the locker room with a 1-0 on the scoreboard.

The second half started up with an inspired Guadeloupe taking charge. In the first 20 minutes they accounted for three clear chances against Porras, but the Costa Rican goalkeeper was able to save his team. Aurelien Capoue was the most active player during these minutes where the islanders became a major threat for the reds. His shot in the 55th minute was the clearest chance the green team had up until then, and this time Porras had some trouble deflecting the ball to a corner kick.

By the 60th minute Costa Rica had completely given up the control of the match to Guadeloupe and were betting on capitalizing on a counterattack. Coach Medford subbed in Cubero for a tired out Saborio and Fonseca for Barrentos, while Salnot thought of bringing veteran Jocelyn Angloma to further impose their game on the reds.

With ten minutes left on the match the “Ticos” didn’t seem to realize that by scoring another goal they would secure their first spot on the group –unless Canada defeated Haiti in the next game. Cubero still managed to have a great chance at the 81st after a quick counterattack.

COSTA RICA HEAD COACH HERNAN MEDFORD

On tonight's game: "It was a divided game. The first half was played very well. The second half, it was logical that after 48 hours the team could not keep up with the same rhythm.”

COSTA RICA MIDFIELDER WALTER CENTENO

On his scoring prowess in the past three games (3 goals in 3 games) and on tonight’s game: “Fortunately I have been able to secure those goals from afar. The good thing is that they have served for the team to gain confidence throughout this tournament. Today we controlled well. We were more mature and less anxious. I think we managed well in the back (on defense) and you can see that Guadeloupe did not have any clear opportunities.”

GUADELOUPE HEAD COACH ROGER SALNOT

On tonight’s game: “It was a hard game. After Costa Rica’s two first games in the tournament, they were looking for a win, so they played their heart out. We started badly by conceding (a goal) early and after conceding it became harder and harder to get into the game and try to even it up.”

On playing with only one day’s rest: “We are not used to this type of competition, where games come repeatedly one after another. All of the teams in our group and in the competition face the same kind of schedule. What worked against us is that the 11 players that played tonight also played on Saturday and also played during the week. Due to the lack of players on our substitutes’ bench, you could tell at the end of the game that the players were getting tired. It was hard for them to get things going. We didn’t have the strength on the bench to make a difference.”

COSTA RICA – GUADELOUPE 1:0 (1:0)

Walter CENTENO 14’

CRC: 18-Jose Francisco Porras-C – 2-Jervis Drummond, 3-Victor Cordero, 6-Andres Nunez, 10-Walter Centeno, 11-Michael Barrantes (75: 7-Rolando Fonseca), 13-Allan Aleman (81: 21-Windell Gabriel), 14-Randall Azofeifa, 15-Harold Wallace, 17-Gabriel Badilla, 19-Alvaro Saborio (63: 9-Johnny Cubero).

Booked: Wallace 26’, Azofeifa 31’, Drummond 34’, Cubero 75’, Centeno 79’

TD: Hernan MEDFORD

GLP: 1-Franck Grandel - 4-Philippe Durpes, 6-Alain Vertot-C, 8-Stephane Auvray, 10-Aurelien Capoue, 12-Cedrick Fiston (66: 15-Jocelyn Angloma), 14-David Sommeil, 19-Richard Edward Socrier, 20-Michael Tacalfred, 21-David Fleurival, 22-Loic Loval (85: 11-Fabien Raddas).

Booked: Sommeil 26’, Capoue 38’

TD: Roger SALNOT

Statistics/Estadísticas CRC GLP

Goal Attempts/Tiros Totales 9 9

Saves/Atajadas 6 2

Fouls/Faltas 18 14

Corners/Tiros de Esquina 5 3

Offsides/Fuera de Lugar 1 0

R: Enrico WIJNGAARDE (SUR)

A1: Anthony GARWOOD (JAM)

A2: Ricardo MORGAN (JAM)

FO: Terry VAUGHN (USA)