Costa Rica oust Guyana from Olympic games

GEORGETOWN: Central American giants Costa Rica formally eliminated Guyana from 2004 Olympic qualifying football with a 3-1 victory on Sunday and marched into the CONCACAF’s final round of the competition.

The Costa Ricans, enjoying a very healthy 7-0 advantage from their first leg triumph at home a week earlier, got goals from Erick Scott, Alvaro Saborio and Roy Myrie to sink the Guyanese in the return leg at the Blairmont Ground, winning 10-1 on aggregate. Captain Shawn Beveney got the only goal for Guyana, who had eliminated Barbados in the first round of the qualifying series. The Costa Ricans are now through to next February’s CONCACAF finals, from which two teams will advance to the 2004 Olympic Games. Scott, a national senior representative, sent Costa Rica ahead in the 27th minute and Beveney levelled eight minutes later for the home side, finishing well after collecting a pass from Devon Millington. Saborio, who netted four goals in the Costa Ricans’ first-leg win, restored their advantage in the 42nd minute and Myrie made it 3-1 a minute later.

In spite of the defeat, Guyana’s Brazilian coach Neider Dos Santos praised his team for improving on the first meeting. “We played much better than the first match, we have to say we played against a professional team, very good team, strong technically very good,” Dos Santos said. In the February 2-12 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying finals in Guadalajara, hosts Mexico and Costa Rica will join Caribbean teams Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as well as the United States, Canada, Honduras and Panama in a battle for two spots from the Confederation for the summer Olympics in Greece.