The Mexican team has a lot of great figures playing in their local league and in Europe. I think that they have a great squad but they also have a tendency to underestimate their rivals, specially from Central America.

Nowadays there is sort of a ¨crisis¨ in the Mexican Football Federation with Ericsson´s performance. Mexico is mentally weak. I´ll be honest with you, I really hope Costa Rica can really take advantage of this situatiuon because right now the Ticos are handling things way much better with the press and between the players. There is a sense of union and partneship around ¨La Sele¨ that I have not seen in quite a while. I know it will be very hard to repeat what happened in 2001 when Costa Rica defeated Mexico at the Azteca in the famous Aztecazo, but I am sure of one thing, Costa Rica will not play a defensive game because the players have in mind what happened that year.

Costa Rica has been playing very good since the last qualifying round and started with a victory over Honduras, I hope this good performance continues, and why not… bring back 3 points like we did in 2001.

LDA’s team is packed with rookies, which have high hopes and will have to work very hard tomorrow. When you have young people in your squad, it can be a tricky situation. On one hand, your players will be physically fit during the whole game, and a rookie’s mentality is very ambitious so they can manage the game with their fresh blood. But this can also hurt you; as a rookie, you obviously lack in experience and in very impotant games (lets say….the finals), you can make costly mistakes; you can loose your head. Sounds like a lot of work for Alajuela’s head coach: “Popeye” Herrera.

On the other side, Saprissa has been the National Champion for 4 times in a row, and they dont want to give up the fifth one. Saprissa’s midfield is playing extremely well; Armando Alonso, Walter
Centeno and of course Celso Borges are tuned in together, and know each other pretty much. The second leg will be played on Saturday the 20th at the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibas.

Interesting Fact: In the last 20 matches that Alajuelense and Saprissa have met, LDA has not won.