The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, August 19, 2003

BORA BRAVADO: Honduran coach Bora Milutinovic hopes to make 6th World Cup appearance with new team; Tico's predict a different outcome.
AFP/TT

Sampson, Bora to Battle for
2006 World Cup Birth
Unintimidated by new Honduran coach Bora Milutinovic's track record of taking teams to the World Cup, Costa Rican National Soccer Team coach Steve Sampson insisted that his squad is one of the top three in the region and will qualify for the 2006 Cup in Germany.
(Click for more)

August 19

Technology Conferences
Carles Miravitlles, director of the Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Barcelona will discuss Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials, at 7 p.m. at the Spanish Cultural Center, 200 north, 200 east of Santa Teresita Church. Info: 257-2919.

XIII International Music Festival
Don’t miss the last days of this marvelous and internationally known festival with soprano Mojca Erdmann, at 8 p.m., at Café Britt. Tomorrow soprano Olga Chernisheva and tenor José Sacin, are performing at 5:30 p.m. at Villa Alegre and BBA with director Heribert Breuer at 8 p.m., at Grecia Church. Tickets on sale at Credomatic and at each concert venue. Info: 295-9747.

Art Talk
Sculptor Crisanto Badilla is talking tonight about Art is not Human, at 7 p.m., at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Costa Rica. Info: 207-4271.

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Sampson, Bora to Battle for 2006 World Cup Birth
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

NO SWEAT: Sampson insists Ticos are in the top three teams of the region and will qualify for the 2006 Cup.
TT/ Julio Lainez

Unintimidated by new Honduran coach Bora Milutinovic's track record of taking teams to the World Cup, Costa Rican National Soccer Team coach Steve Sampson insisted that his squad is one of the top three in the region and will qualify for the 2006 Cup in Germany.

During a recent interview with The Tico Times, Sampson stressed that he has no doubts the Ticos will claim one of the CONCACAF's three World Cup births. The CONCACAF is the soccer federation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

"I am totally convinced after what I saw in the Gold Cup, and how we played, and knowing that we can be better with better preparation, that we are definitely within the top three [teams in the CONCACAF]," Sampson said.

According to the last month's FIFA World Ranking, Costa Rica is 17th in the world and third in the CONCACAF behind Mexico (5th) and the United States (9th). Honduras trails at 41st.

Nevertheless, Milutinovic, who has brought five different teams to the World Cup in the last 20 years, said he is confident that Honduras will be his sixth ticket back to the Big Dance.

"This is an excellent opportunity to fulfil my dream of going to the World Cup for the sixth time," Milutinovic told a Honduran television reporter last weekend, according to AFP.

Honduras' Serbian-born coach, scheduled to arrive in Tegucigalpa this week for the first time, has already become a source of scandal in the impoverished Central American nation. Although neither Milutinovic nor the Honduran Futbol Federation will admit to the terms of the contract, the coach has been blasted in the press for receiving a salary that is rumored to be as high as $75,000 a month, with a $2 million signing bonus.

During the past two decades, "Milu" has taken five different teams to five consecutive World Cups: Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002).

Honduras, which made its first and only Wold Cup appearance in 1982, just missed qualifying for the 2002 Cup in Korea and Japan. In the end, Mexico took the final CONCACAF spot and joined Costa Rica and the U.S. as the three qualifying teams from the region.

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German Fraud Suspect Deported

Immigration authorities yesterday deported a German fraud suspect who was arrested last month by the International Police (INTERPOL) and Costa Rican police at the southern Nicoya beach town of Malpais.

Klaus Dieter Rossner was arrested July 29 and faces charges in Germany of writing $500,000 in fake checks. Upon being arrested, Rossner suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized in San José for almost three weeks.

According to police, Rossner did not have a passport and Immigration records have no account of him entering the country. He is thought to have entered the country by sneaking across the border from Nicaragua, according to Security Minister Rogelio Ramos.

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UNICEF Launches C.A.
Campaign Against Child Trafficking

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - The United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) yesterday launched a Central American campaign to persuade parents not to send their children to the United States with illegal traffickers.

The campaign, named "The Route North," will be supported by 633 radio stations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, according to San Salvador UNICEF representative Juan Carlos Espínola.

"What we want from this campaign is to try to persuade mothers and fathers or heads of families not to send children to the United States in an illegal fashion, particularly with coyotes," he said.

Some 1,200 children from Central American countries are rescued from the hands of human traffickers, when they try to cross from Mexico into the United States to meet with their families, according to UNICEF numbers gathered in Mexico.

Espinola said that the number of children taken across the border is far higher than estimates, due to the illegal and secretive nature of the trafficking.

The participating radio stations, part of the Union of Radio Broadcaster Associations in Central America (UNARCA), will be broadcasting the daily messages, including testimonials and dramatizations about the dangers of sending children with coyotes.

The radio spots are tentatively scheduled to run for six months.

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