The clock struck midnight on the Cinderella story of the Costa Rican under-20 national team Tuesday, as the young Ticos fell to Brazil 1-0 in the U-20 FIFA World Cup in Egypt.

Costa Rica fought valiantly against the heavily favored Brazil, limiting the potent Brazilian attack for much of the game, however in the 67th minute, Alan Kardec blasted a close-range shot past Costa Rican goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado for the lone tally of the match.

“I'm very proud of the boys,” Costa Rican coach Ronald González said after the game. “It was a performance that gives us great confidence for the future. Some defeats can bring great hope, and this was one of them. That said, there is no doubt that Brazil deserved to win.”

Brazil dominated possession for much of the game and created several opportunities to score prior to Kardec's goal. Costa Rica goalkeeper Alvarado stifled many opportunities and continued to shine as one of the best young keepers in the world.

Costa Rica created a fair share of chances as well, firing several shots just wide and, in the 16th minute, a tremendous free kick blast by David Guzman was tipped just over the crossbar by Brazilian keeper Rafael.

Costa Rica will play Hungary in the third place game on Friday at 9 a.m. Brazil moves on to play Ghana in the World Cup final on Friday at 12 p.m. Ghana beat Hungary 3-2 Tuesday.

The Guanacaste office of the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) closed access to several trails in Rincón de la Vieja National Park Tuesday due to a series of recent tremors.

Trails to and along the volcano's crater will be closed, as well as those to La Cangreja and La Escondida waterfalls.

The decision comes after the Seismological and Vulcanological Observatory of Arenal and Miravalles reported 27 small earthquakes in the area of a magnitude between 1.0 and 2.8 and with depths between two and four kilometers.

The National Seismological System – based at the University of Costa Rica with the support of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute – raised the alert level of the park from white, which indicates normal activity, to green, which signifies that changes to the volcano's behavior have been noticed.

A communiqué from SINAC noted that that the new activity has not put anyone at risk, rather the closures are a preventive measure to avert harm that may be done by an eventual earthquake of greater magnitude.

Scientists and officials will continue to monitor the zone to determine if the trails are safe to open.

A recently released working paper by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) paints a grim picture for women, black and indigenous employees throughout Latin America, saying they earn measurably less than their white or male counterparts.

The study surveyed 18 Latin American countries and found that men earn 17 percent more than women of the same age and education level. The study also found that persons of African and indigenous descent earn 28 percent less.

“The region still faces major challenges in terms of eradicating labor market disadvantages based on characteristics like gender or ethnicity,” said report authors Juan Pablo Atal, Hugo Ñopo and Natalia Winder in their analysis. “Policies that are aimed at reducing these inequalities are still in need, not only because of ethical considerations regarding equality but as major strategy to reduce poverty in the region. ”

Concerning the gender gap, Costa Rica fell right in the middle in terms of income disparity, with men earning 13.7 percent more than women. Bolivia and Guatemala boast the smallest gaps, with women actually earning more than men in Bolivia. Brazil showed the largest gap, with men earning 29.7 percent more than women.

The study looked further into these numbers and found the gender wage gap is narrower among younger people. Analysts suspect that this could be evidence that reform and education efforts are slowly closing the gap, but it also may be because women are leaving the labor market altogether when they enter childrearing years, and reentering it automatically places them at a lower level.

Because Costa Rica does not track income in terms of ethnicity, the Central American country did not factor into the IADB's statistics for ethnic discrepancy. Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Paraguay were the only countries with ethnic information available in their household surveys.

Germany will donate €6 million to protect the natural resources and practices of Central America's indigenous communities.

The funds – equal to almost $9 million – will also go toward “strengthening” agricultural practices and cultural identity among the region's indigenous populations, said German Ambassador to El Salvador Christian Stocks.

The agreement was signed by Ambassador Stocks and Costa Rican Environment Minister Jorge Rodríguez, who also serves as the pro tempore president of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development.

The commission works under the umbrella of the Central American Integration System (SICA), whose temporary presidency rotated to Costa Rica in July.

SICA took the opportunity of the signing to launch a new Web site dedicated to climate change. The site – http://www.sica.int/cambioclimatico – will include documents and information that reflect Central America's positions on the climate issue and comes in time for the lead up to the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.