Costa Rica's Soccer Team to Face
Honduras Tonight in Vital Match

The axe will fall tonight on one Central American soccer team when Costa Rica faces Honduras in a do-or-die World Cup 2006 qualifying match.

The Ticos will have to defend their right to enter the final qualifying round on foreign turf, as the game will be played at the General Francisco Morazán Stadium in San Pedro Sula in Honduras at 5 p.m. The game will be televised on Costa Rican channels 6 and 7 and will likely be the sole focal point in most buildings with televisions around the country.

Costa Rica has more points within this qualifying round, so even a tie will mean the Ticos advance to the final round. Costa Rica's national team, La Selección Nacional or La Sele will enter the match on a spectacular winning streak under the leadership of star forward Paulo Wanchope, who plays for Málaga, Spain, and new head coach, Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto.

Honduras will play handicapped with the 12 th -hour news that the crown of its team, star forward David Suazo, will sit out the match with an injury. However, the team does have the memory of its resounding 5-2 defeat of Costa Rica here earlier this year (TT Daily Page, Aug. 20).

Trying to tilt the scale in its favor, Honduras decided to hold the match in the Morazán stadium, which seats 19,000, less than half the capacity of the Olympic Stadium in the capital Tegucigalpa , which seats 50,000. The smaller stadium's seats are closer to the field where fans can egg on the home team and heckle the Ticos.

Honduras has also been training under experienced head coach “Chelato” Uclés, who took charge after leaving a political campaign for a congressional seat with the Liberal Party (which is actually conservative).

“It doesn't matter where we play nor who is the Honduras coach, what matters in our minds is getting one of the results (a tie or a win),” Pinto said. “We aren't doing it to eliminate Honduras , we just want to ensure our classification.”

Security forces are hunkering down for the match, with 3,000 police dispatched to patrol the stadium inside and out.

Of the four teams that will face off in the final round, of which two are decided – the United States and Guatemala – three will qualify for the World Cup 2006 in Germany and one will play two additional matches against an Asian team for rights to play in the World Cup.

--AFP

Festival of the Arts to Gain
International Exposure
By Steven J. Barry
Tico Times Staff
sbarry@ticotimes.net

Youth and Culture Minister Guido Saénz announced yesterday that this year's Festival of Arts, which begins today, will likely gain special international attention because of the Latin American-Iberian Summit of Heads of State, scheduled for Friday and Saturday in San José.

“It gives a dose of faith and perspective to the people during these difficult times,” Saénz said, referring to the government corruption scandals under investigation.

The minister said the 10-day festival, which will include paintings, plays and children's activities, will span all of San José 's public venues, including the National Theater downtown and the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center in Los Yoses, in east San José .

Saénz said because of the quality of the displays and productions by international artists – some coming from as far as Israel – the ¢1,500 ($3.32) entrance fee to the festival is “almost symbolic.”