Tropical flora, exotic fauna and fake grass will greet the United States

Goal

Adverse Habitat Awaits U.S. in Costa Rica

By JACK BELL

Published: June 2, 2009
Tropical flora, exotic fauna and fake grass will greet the United States when it plays Costa Rica on Wednesday in a World Cup qualifying match at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in San José.

American players, who generally dislike playing games on the artificial turf surfaces in four stadiums in Major League Soccer, will get to train for two days, then play a qualifying match in the Concacaf region on one of the few plastic surfaces used for top-level games outside the United States.

“I think for the most part, the players will tell you that the game is not the same on artificial turf,” Coach Bob Bradley said during a conference call last Friday. Coincidentally, the Americans will play several matches in next month’s Concacaf Gold Cup in the United States on artificial surfaces.

FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, only recently approved the use of artificial turf fields for international matches, including in several of its youth World Cups (U-20 in Canada in 2007, and U-17 events in Peru in 2005 and in Finland in 2003). The stadium in Costa Rica is also used by Deportivo Saprissa, which gained a waiver from FIFA in 2003 to install the turf because of consistently poor field conditions due to the tropical climate.

Playing surface aside, the United States (2-0-1), which leads the six-nation qualifying group with 7 points, will again have to deal with adverse conditions. The American team has an 0-6 record in qualifying matches in Costa Rica and has been outscored, 13-4.

“The fact that a number of our guys have been to Saprissa Stadium, who have played matches there, that will certainly be part of what we will discuss when we get the whole group together,” Bradley said. “Costa Rica has had great success at Saprissa Stadium. They are very comfortable there. They have great confidence there.

“And certainly, we are aware that we have never won there. So when we look at different challenges, talk about things that we still want to achieve, this is a good example.”

Victories at Costa Rica and against Honduras in Chicago on Saturday (when more than 50,000 fans are expected at Soldier Field) would virtually assure the United States of securing one of Concacaf’s three automatic berths to next summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

M.L.S.

Playing through in golf means one thing and something quite different in Major League Soccer. The league plays through the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, when most of the top major international tournaments pop up on the calendar.

It is that time again — when national teams put out the call for players, and M.L.S. plays through. This time, the league reports, 21 players have been drafted.

For the next two weeks, there are World Cup qualifying matches all over the world. This month, several of the league’s top American players will be with the United States at the Confederations Cup in South Africa. In July, the Concacaf Gold Cup comes to the United States, and another group of players will bid farewell to their clubs for up to three weeks. And in August and September, expect more World Cup call-ups.

France

Girondis Bordeaux ended Lyon’s seven-year stranglehold on the Ligue 1 title when Yourann Gourcoff scored the only goal in a win at Caen on Saturday. The victory allowed Bordeaux to preserve its 3-point lead over Olympique Marseille.

By winning the league title, Bordeaux earned the right to play in the Trophée des Champions, the season’s traditional opener, which for the first time will be played outside the country. The match, between the winners of Ligue 1 and the French Cup, will be played July 25 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Bordeaux will face the Cup winner Guingamp, a second-division club from Brittany. Guingamp beat Rennes to become the first team outside Ligue 1 to win the French Cup in more than 50 years.

Notes

¶Afshin Ghotbi, the coach of Iran’s national team, confirmed that talks were being held between soccer officials from the United States and Iran about playing a friendly match in Tehran in November. Sunil Gulati, the president of the American federation, would not comment directly on the game in Iran, saying only that “we talk to many football associations about games.”

On-the-field issues could derail any possible game. (The two countries have only played twice: Iran won, 2-1, at the 1998 World Cup in France, and the teams played to a 1-1 tie in January 2000 in Pasadena, Calif.) The United States is expected to secure one of three automatic berths to the 2010 World Cup from the Concacaf region, but Iran is struggling to qualify from Asia.

¶Carlo Ancelotti was introduced as the coach of Chelsea of the English Premier League. In Spain, Real Madrid announced the hiring of Manuel Pellegrini as the coach and Zinedine Zidane as an adviser to the club president.