Ticos Take to the Street

Well, although I didn't get to attend the World Cup qualifier last night, I did get to watch it on TV, it was actually on two different channels (both broadcasting in Spanish), the celebration afterwards did come to me, in an indirect kind of way.
As suspected the U.S. fielded a team mainly of fringe players who more than likely won't even be on the World Cup roster. We did have Tim Howard in goal, he is the New Jersey native who plays for Manchester United -- I know you have heard of them, DeMarcus Beasley up top but everyone else was pretty much scrubs.

As I mentioned before Costa Rica and everything to play, they really just needed a tie to seal their spot in the World Cup, and even if they had lost if Guatemala lost to Mexico, the Ticos were going to get in.

Well Costa Rica left nothing to chance and drubbed the U.S. 3-0. The U.S. team had a few good chances but most of the game was played in the midfield with the Ticos perfectly content with a tie and once they scored to go up 1-0 they had no intention of blowing the lead.

It rained hard for most of the first half of the game, meaning it was probably a good thing I wasn't there as I would have been soaking wet, but as you can see in the photos posted the field was wet for the whole game.

So how do I fit into all of this? Well, I can honestly say I got to see how important the World Cup is to other countries outside the U.S. After each goal was scored I could hear horns honking on the street and the revelry heating up down below. My apartment is on the 9th floor of a 9 story building in the heart of San Jose, so people were spilling out of clubs and pubs to celebrate as the game wore on. And once the game was over, the streets were bubbling with fans celebrating, waving Costa Rican flags and horns honking.


The two TV stations even had reporters live in the street at the intersection right below me. So while I wanted to attend the game, it was great to see the people react and celebrate the way they did. I can honestly say their celebration was on par with any post-Super Bowl or World Series celebration you would have experienced in downtown STL, and all Costa Rica had done was qualify for the World Cup.

It was hard to sleep last night with all the horns, whistles and other festivities going on down below, but I was able to follow the Cardinals game via the Internet and went to bed after they swept the lowly Padres.

It is Sunday afternoon now and I have 7 TVs on in front me, watching the Rams defense allowing the Seahawks to score at will on one of them, have the Braves and Astros on another, the NASCAR race from Kansas on one more, the Buffalo Miami game on one, and other Spanish sports, so it isn't so bad.

Cheers for the Ticos.