Is there an English laguage Costa Rican paper online? I’m really curious to see what the fans and sportswriters reaction has been to what I see as a completely boneheaded move by the manager that likely cost them a spot in the World Cup.
To recap it, Costa Rica led USA 2-1 very late in the final game of qualifying. A win for CR means automatic qualification, a tie means they have to play the fifth place team from the South American confederation in a home and home series where one qualifies and one stays home. That team is Uruguay, a better team than CR according to most.
With less than ten minutes left in the game with a 2-1 lead, the CR manager began to stall so obviously that he was tossed from the game along with his assistant, leaving a strength coach in charge. Because the stalling was so obvious, the referee added a full five minutes of extra time to be played after the end of regulation. The U.S. played hard and with just 20 seconds left before the whistle, scored on an uncontested header to tie the game. CR is knocked into the playoff.
If the coach had just played the game, or at least not have been so obvious in his stalling tactics, there would likely have been only two or three minutes of stoppage time and CR would have won.
I am wondering what level of criticism he is getting at home.
I’m curious too. To be fair, though, I don’t think they were run off because of the stalling, but because they were essentially assailing the fourth official who was warning them about the stalling. Fine line, but damn, they looked like they were about to shank a dude just before they got the heave-ho.
Yeah, they’re probably ripping the manager a new one, and/or blaming the officials … but even still, 5 minutes isn’t an outragious amount of time to add on at the end. More might have actually been warranted - not only because of the stalling, but because of legitimate time stoppages – Gooch’s knee blowing out being just one.
The best part was the way he continued to plead his case to the troopers assigned to lead him off the field. Now that’s playing your part with dedication. I’m curious if he was arguing in English or Spanish at that point.
For what it is worth, the three articles on the subject that I read all say that the coach was ejected for arguing with the fourth official about his attempt to correct the number of a person being substituted for. Apparently, the fourth official had the wrong person coming off the pitch, the coach tried to correct the mistake, the fourth official refused the correction, and the coach got upset. That, anyway, is the coach’s story.
And given the knee injury and the 6 second-half substitutions, the fact 5 min. was added on was not a shock. The substitutions alone were going to get 3 added minutes, as FIFA indicates that each substitution should be considered to “waste” 30 sec. of time. So the extended time had nothing to do with any attempt by Costa Rica to waste time.
I don’t think a coach can even be dismissed for time-wasting. They get sent off, or I suppose more accurately sent away, for abusing the officials, that kind of thing, but not for anything that happens on the field of play. In those cases it is the team on the field that gets penalised in whatever way.
Anyway, as **DSYoungEsq ** illustrates, five minutes of added time is not at all unusual, three minutes being about the norm. To have no added time at all is very rare.