- July, 10 2009 -
|
||||||
MIAMI -- Patrice Bernier and Marcel de Jong scored 3 1/2 minutes apart in the first half and led Canada to a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica on Friday, sending the North Americans to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup as the Group A winners.
Canada already had assured itself of a berth in the final eight and finished with seven points to earn a match against the Group B runner-up July 18 in Philadelphia.
Costa Rica improved to four points, and advanced to the quarterfinals when Jamaica beat El Salvador 1-0 in the second game of the doubleheader Friday.
"Two-two was a fair result. Both teams played to win the pace of the game changed after the first goal," Costa Rica coach Rodrigo Kenton said. "Canada is a good, calm organized team."
The first 20 minutes of the match were listless with both teams getting comfortable with the artificial turf surface and the humidity.
But then both teams exploded for four goals in 11 minutes.
Costa Rica opened the scoring in the 23rd minute thanks to two mistakes by Canadian goalkeeper Greg Sutton on the same play.
Sutton's goal kick went right to Costa Rica's Armando Alonso, who headed the ball back into the Canadian zone. Striker Andy Herron ran onto the ball and lofted a shot over Sutton who ventured out too far and stumbled while trying to retreat into his goal.
Two minutes later, Canada tied the game when midfielder Josh Simpson drove down the left flank and found an unmarked Bernier, who volleyed the ball into the goal.
De Jong put Canada ahead in the 28th. His free kick from close to 45 meters was cleared back toward him. He settled it and then launched another attempt that skipped once before deflecting off the inside of the left post past goalkeeper Ricardo Gonzalez.
But Costa Rican captain Walter Centeno, the Miller Lite Man of the Match, equalized in the 34th minute, driving a curving free kick from 30 meters over the wall and found the inside of the goalpost
Costa Rica suffered from suspect defending and shoddy goalkeeping for much of the first half.
Despite the breakdowns, the Ticos sent a wave of pressure at Canada in the second half looking for the winner. Celso Borges sent a bicycle kick by the right post early in the half.
Then Canada got a lucky break when the ball off a corner kick hit Canadian defender Richard Hastings' hands in the 73rd minute, but American referee Terry Vaughan didn't call a penalty.
Five minutes later, Borges headed Centeno's corner, but Canadian midfielder Jaime Peters cleared the ball off the line.
In the 84th minute, Centeno sent a header from 10 yards out just over the crossbar.
That's as close as Costa Rica could get as Sutton and the Canadian defense prevailed.
"Canada was just sitting back and the result was good for them," Herron said. "They didn't mind if they just sat there and went forward, so they just defended the whole time trying to get in good position to try to attack us and we just tried, they defended well."
"The coach was trying to make a couple of changes to get us close to the goal. I mean we tried we tried to do our best, but Canada did a good job defending."
With injuries and players tagged with cautions, Canada manager Stephen Hart rested five of his regulars.
"I had no choice. I had no choice," Hart said. "If any of the players were carded they would out been out of the quarterfinals. And we had injuries. I had no choice."
Julian de Guzman, captain Paul Stalteri, Ali Gerba, Mike Klukowski, Dejan Jakovic and Josh Simpson all began the match on the bench. Jakovic was injured, while De Guzman, the Gold Cup 2007 MVP, could have been suspended for the quarterfinals with another caution. Inserted in their place were Jaime Peters, Andre Hainault, Simeon Jackson, Richard Hastings and de Jong.
"For us this game in particular there were too many changes we just couldn't find a rhythm," Hart said. "In the second half we did marginally better, but overall what we had to do tonight was suffer and we got the result of a point, but at least with three games and now we have a few days to recuperate and head to the quarterfinals."
Source: goldcup.org
