Costa Rican press would not let the country's national soccer team manager Hernán Medford off easy for leading the club Wednesday to a 10th non-win in Kingston, Jamaica, in what the media is calling the Ticos' “worst run in history.”

Damning headlines such as “Triumph a Strange Thing for La Sele” (short for La Selección, the national team), “Oy, How Badly We Play!” and “Fatal Oversight Worsens Bad Streak” hit the newsstands yesterday as payback.

Not that the team – also known as the “Tricolor” – is in a losing streak. Wednesday's match ended in a 1-1 draw, a step up perhaps from Costa Rica's prior friendly that resulted in a 0-0 tie last week in Tehran, Iran.

To be fair, Costa Rica nearly reversed its no-win situation against the team affectionately called the “Reggae Boyz.” Substitute William Sunsing put the Ticos ahead in the 78th minute, kicking a loose ball past goalkeeper Donavan Ricketts, Reuters newswire reported. Their luck dried up when Tyrone Marshall scored past Costa Rica's Ricardo González in 88th minute.

“It was a good start to our campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,” Jamaica's Brazilian coach Rene Simones was quoted by Reuters saying.

Medford could not say the same.

“I'm not happy because we played badly and have to accept that, but you take the good with the bad, and defense is our strength,” said Medford in an interview with Costa Rica's Radio Columbia.

“You (journalists) are going to keep dwelling on the bad,” the Tico coach said.

It's tradition for sports journalists here to lay into the team or teammates themselves, but now some are dwelling on Medford. As head of the national team, said TV channel 7's Everardo Herrera, one of the country's best-known sports commentators, “( Medford's) vision and actions are very limited.”

“He's bowed to the veterans, renounced renovation and showed poor methodology,” Herrera said. “He hasn't been able to tell the difference between a team (playing) in Costa Rica and one competing internationally. … Costa Rica proves to be a very poorly structured, fractured, slow team.”

The team “is heading toward the abyss,” he said. “It's time to make decisions.”

In print, Al Día newspaper said Costa Rica didn't “deserve” to win after “playing so badly.”

The daily La República said Jamaica's goal “put things in their place,” and that “ Costa Rica wasn't ableto beat the Jamaicans and didn't deserve to, either, for being so useless.”

-Tico Times / ACAN-EFE