Ricardo Lavolpe is never at a loss for words. No matter who he coaches, whether its Mexico or now Costa Rica, he always speaks his mind and yesterday was no different.
In an entertaining 12-minute post-match press conference, the Costa Rican coach said it was clear his team was superior – despite losing to Honduras on penalties in a Gold Cup quarterfinal at the New Meadowlands Stadium – that the Hondurans played dirty and he scoffed at the idea of practicing penalty kicks.
Of course, that was after the Ticos twice hit the crossbar in the shootout, falling 4-2 to Honduras after playing to a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes,
“I don’t believe in practicing PKs,” he said. “I don’t have to teach anybody to take a penalty kick. I think all my players are ready to take a penalty kick. You have to have the attitude, the mentality, the perfection to put the ball in.”
Yesterday, though, they didn’t. Real Salt Lake’s Alvaro Saborio missed from the spot – twice. The first came in the 76th minute after Panamanian referee Roberto Moreno ruled Honduran defender Victor Bernardez pulled down Marco Urena in the box. That shot was saved by Honduran keeper Noel Valladares, who said his well-earned yellow card was to get into Saborio’s head.
Saborio also took the Ticos third PK and, like Celso Borges did in the first round, hit the crossbar with his attempt.
“There’s some decisions the coach doesn’t decide,” Lavolpe said. “We have players with big names like Bryan [Ruiz], Celso, Saborio and [Cristian] Bolanos. The player made the decision to take it. Regarding the PKs, he was looking for his revenge.”
Honduras, though, converted all four of its attempts during the shootout, a big reason why they are moving on to face Mexico in the semifinals at Reliant Stadium in Houston Wednesday night. Though Lavolpe said its clear the best team didn’t move on.
“To advance via PKs, you can’t really say they’re superior…In this game, we had the best management, the best options,” he said. “It’s a very equal match where there had to be a winner, but Costa Rica was obviously superior.”
Lavolpe also ripped into Honduras, especially for its physical play.
“You guys saw the game, you saw how Honduras played,” he said. “My point of view, and I may be wrong, I saw a lot of dirty plays, plays that the fourth and fifth time, its not a coincidence.”
And Moreno also received Lavolpe’s wrath for not punishing Los Catrachos.
“I don’t like to talk referees. There were plays that were not very well observed,” he said. “Two legs coming in through the left in the first half, I actually approached the fourth official. My player has to jump because if he doesn’t have that smartness, he could have broken his leg. There were a number of plays like that…I didn’t like today’s referee.
There were two hand balls and they were intentional…but we’re not going to talk about the referee tonight. I don’t know how they select the referees, but let’s not talk about them now.”
Honduras jumped in front four minutes into the second half as Jerry Bengtson tapped in the rebound of Javier Portillo’s saved shot. Costa Rica equalized in the 56th minute on Dennis Marshall’s downward header from a Bolanos corner kick.
Honduran coach Luis Fernando Suarez wouldn’t fire back at Lavolpe, much to the disappointment of the press, both here and abroad.
“I want to excuse myself for not responding,” he said. “I want you to understand, I can’t really give an opinion over what another person so respectable as Lavolpe said. I hope you understand I shouldn’t.”
Most importantly, he said, his team did its talking on the field.
“Moving forward we’ll be humble and playing soccer as we move forward in this tournament,” Suarez said. “I’m a very respectful person and I respect the players because they are the ones who give their all on the pitch and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”