Glorious Defeat

Folks,

Well, after all the build-up, the Germany match is now over. There's a lot of pride here that they acquitted themselves well, and that it was the highest scoring opener for the world cup ever.

The build up
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The expectations within Costa Rica for the match were surprisingly low. I think in Ireland we feel we can win no matter what the opposition. However, here they felt that they were going to be beaten badly by Germany. Several bars and restaurants had prediction competitions, and the vast majority predicted a big German win, with a small number predicting a draw, and the very very few optimists predicting a Tico win.
The venue
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The match was on at 10am, so everyone was hunting for a good place to watch the match. Most of the teachers were going to a party in a student's house. However, the student and his family are Colombian, and I felt there'd be hardly any Ticos there, so we decided to go to a bar. We went to a bar up the road, and it was packed, with everyone wearing their red team shirts. There was no cover charge, we got a table, and they started serving us at 10am (although it wasn't officially allowed until 12).

The Match
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Costa Rica looked to have stage fright at the beginning, and the goal keeper looked extremely shaky, so it wasn't really a surprise when Germany went 1-0 up after 5 minutes. However the bar nearly erupted when, against the run of play, Wanchope levelled 5 minutes later.

Germany scored again, and after 17 minutes there had already been 3 goals. In the second half Germany scored again, but Wanchope (who must be on every billboard and ad on TV here) scored again, making it 3-2. The crowd went wild again, chanting the slogan you see everywhere here '¡Sí se puede!' Yes, we can!

However, a blinder of a goal in the 87th minute gave us the final 4-2 scoreline.

Still, everyone feels that the team acquitted themselves well, gave an entertaining opening match, and they're delighted to be able to move on and focus on the other matches.

Now it's clear that the Ecuador match is crucial, as they've beaten Poland. That match is on Thursday morning at 7am!

Manuel Antonio
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We had a lovely few days with Nicole and Ronan down in Manuel Antonio. The weather was a combination of lovely sun and then heavy rain, this being rainy season. The sea was particularly rough, with high waves and lots of stones and shells washed up onto the beach. (There were actually three American students and their teacher drowned close to there last Saturday in the strong swells.) But it was a lovely, relaxing few days, and it was a good break.

Taxi TV
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One consequence of the world cup is that some taxi drivers have installed TVs in their cars, and they're watching them as they drive. We'd seen this a couple of months back during a big club match here, but now the transport ministry is looking to increase the fine for this, which is currently only $4. One taxi driver, who was interviewed in the newspaper while simultaneously watching Bad Boys II and driving on the motorway, said that it was fine during the day, but a little dangerous at night, because it reflects a lot of light.
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Well, that's it for another week. Nicole and Ronan left yesterday, and are home now. We're off ourselves in three weeks! Apologies to anyone who's written emails recently and not got a reply. I'm going through them this week, so you should hear from me soon. So for now…

Pura Vida,

Éamon