A common saying among Tico football fans is that a First Division Final in Costa Rica is not exciting unless either Liga Deportiva Alajuelense or Deportivo Saprissa get to play. Such belief was shattered last night at the Eladio Rosabal Cordero Stadium in Heredia, where the local team came from behind and defeated Asociacion Deportiva Santos with a final score of four goals against two. Fan...

In the Olympic qualifiers for the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA), Costa Rica is now 0-2. The Men's Volleyball National Team was no match for their opponents from the United States last night at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. Judging by the game, the American team will have no problems securing a ticket to the 2012 Summer Games in Londo...

Municipal Perez Zeledon was the most consistent team during the regular season of the 2012 Summer Tournament. The Southern Warriors experienced some slight setbacks at the end of the season, but fans mostly chalked it up to the fact that the team had already clinched its ticket to the semifinals, and thus was allowed to relax a bit. Many football fans in Costa Rica thought that Perez Zeledo...

For both fighters, it was the best bout of their lives. For fans of boxing, it was a treat. For the judges who scored the fight, it was an unanimous decision. Floyd Mayweather Jr. took the most punishment ever in twelve rounds of boxing, and still managed to come out victorious against a strong and resolute Miguel Angel  Cotto Vasquez, who did not agree with the unanimous decision. The Puer...

The legendary Deportivo Saprissa, a staple of first division football in Costa Rica and one of the top-ranked teams in the CONCACAF, lost unceremoniously in a tight match played against the Asociacion Deportiva Santos at the National Stadium earlier tonight. It was a surprise victory for AD Santos, an otherwise modest team from Guapiles that has played a very solid season in the Summer Tournam...

Back in October of 2011, some of the hardest-working athletes in Costa Rica gathered at the auditorium of the National Rehabilitation Center (CENARE in Spanish) and were sworn in as a National Team to represent our country in the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara. President Laura Chinchilla delivered the oath to the assembled volleyball players and off they went to Mexico. Once in the hist...

With a victory over the towering team of Trinidad and Tobago, the Women's National Volleyball Team put Costa Rica in the quarter finals of the NORCECA Volleyball Confederation Olympic Qualification Tournament currently underway in Tijuana, Mexico. There was a clear height advantage for the Caribbean volleyball players of Trinidad on the court, but in the end the Ticas prevailed three sets to o...

After being convicted of the crimes of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, Minor Vargas Calvo could be sentenced to more than 100 years in a federal prison in the United States. As he is 60 years old today, he may not live to see his native Costa Rica again. In the early 21st century, Mr. Vargas was president of the prestigious Deportivo Saprissa, a football team that is c...

The final games in the regular season of the Summer Tournament were exciting due to the different permutations that would have allowed the champion Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) to advance to the semifinals, or Club Sport Cartagines (CSC) to get a new shot at a championship title that has eluded the team since before the middle of the 20th century. Neither LDA or CSC made it past the regular...

The Santa Ana Bulldogs and the Toros of Escazu will face off tonight at 6:00 pm at the Cuty Monge Stadium for the fourth edition of the Costa Rica Federation of American Football (FEFACR in Spanish). The Bulldogs are currently the top-rated team in the league, having won all eight games of the 2012 season. The Toros arrive to the Super Bowl with a record of 5 victories and 3 losses. FEFACR and ...

Going into the last game of the regular season, Club Sport Cartagines (CSC) had three options to qualify to the next round of the First Division Summer Tournament in Costa Rica: Winning; taking three points and comfortably advancing. Coming away with a tied score, as long as Saprissa lost against Club Sport Herediano (CSH). Losing, but with the hope that neither CSH or Liga Deportiva Alaju...

For the second year in a row, Tico athletes elevated Costa Rica's status in the surfing world with medals. Noe Mar McGonagle earned third place overall in the under-16 division at the Dakine World Junior Surfing Championship in Playa Venao, Panama. The young Tico surfer from Pavones was victorious in every heat during the eight days of elimination rounds. His day began with a morning heat which...

Thanks to the efforts of all the young surfers who traveled to Playa Venao in Panama, the Junior National Surf Team of Costa Rica is now number ten in the world, and it could climb to the eighth position. All eyes are on Noe Mar McGonagle, the 15-year old surfing prodigy from Pavones who could be advancing to the finals, and who currently has a strong chance of bringing home a gold medal. ...

Today is the final round of regular season matches between First Division teams, and four teams are vying for two tickets to the four-way semifinals that will wrap up the Summer Tournament. For two of the teams, advancing to the next round will be completely up to their performance, while the other two teams depend on a mixture of tenacity, mathematical probability and plain old luck. He...

Brazil, the economic colossus of Latin America, is having a hard time getting ready to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The construction and improvement of infrastructure needed to accommodate thousands of visitors to the world's premier sporting events is constantly running into problems. The country with the largest Portuguese-speaking population in the world has...

Noe Mar McGonagle has been unstoppable in 2012. The young surfer from Pavones is now in the semifinals and his incredible performance thus far places him as one of the top ten surfers under-16 in the world. Thanks to strong swell conditions at Playa Venao in Panama yesterday, Noe Mar took advantage of two lefts averaging between 2.5 and three meters to beat Brazilian and South African surfers ...

After 6 consecutive wins and 9 matches without losing, the three-time First Division Champions Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) looked like they had it all worked out in terms of advancing to the quarter finals round of the summer football tournament. They were looking for a victory, but a tied score would have been to their advantage. They had the home pitch advantage at the Scotiabank-Ale...

The first day of the World Junior Surfing Championship in Playa Venao got off to a good start with solid heats by the best junior surfers in the world, but when Day 2 came around, the competition level went up a few notches. As Pavones native Noe Mar McGonagle paddled out for his heat, those who are familiar with his aggressive style of surfing knew that they would be in for a treat.  Noe M...

Earlier this Sunday afternoon, First Division champs Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) won an important game against Limon Football Club by 2-0. With this victory, LDA is one of the contenders in the quarter finals of the Summer Tournament. The team is currently in fourth place, behind first-place leader Perez Zeledon, Santos (Guapiles) and Deportivo Saprissa. LDA has 30 points, the same as ...

The DaKine/International Surfing Association (ISA) World Junior Surfing Championship, presented by Billabong, is now underway in Playa Venao in Panama. This event has drawn more than 300 surfers from around the world, all under the age of 18. Surfers from 31 countries participated in a colorful parade yesterday in the town of Pedasi. Costa Rica has sent her best young wave riders to Panama, and...

The National Football Teams of Costa Rica and Honduras did not disappoint fans last night at the National Stadium in La Sabana. The Central American classic between the two strongest teams in the region and consistent performers at the CONCACAF level ended in a tied score of one goal each. The teams were evenly matched throughout the game, but one player stood out among all. Legionnaire Tico le...

A promising baseball team, a radical new look, a brand-new stadium in a major American metropolis, Miami Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen seemingly has it all -except the right choice of words and role models. In an interview with Time magazine, Mr. Guillen exercised his right to free expression by professing his admiration for Fidel Castro and his perseverance in holding on to power for so long....

The 19th round of the summer tournament ended with victories from the leader Perez Zeledon, along with Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA), Deportivo Saprissa, Club Sport Herediano, and Club Sport Cartagines (CSC). This means that the powerhouse football teams LDA, Saprissa, Herediano and CSC still have a shot at qualifying for the quarter finals. The reigning league champions are looking better a...

Daily newspaper La Tribuna in Honduras has reported that the request by the National Football Team of that country to play the upcoming friendly match against Costa Rica at 3:00 pm was declined by FEDEFUTBOL. On April 11th, Costa Rica will celebrate the 156th anniversary of the Battle of Rivas, and many patriotic activities are planned for that afternoon. The players from Honduras are sched...

With a score of 1-0 against our national beach football team, Guatemala came away the champion of Copa Pilsener at La Costa del Sol, a short tournament played in El Salvador during Semana Santa. With that loss, the beach football players from Costa Rica were relegated to the last place of the four-team playoff. The Costa del Sol beach football tournament was organized by athletic and tourism or...

Laurens Molina is a Tico athlete currently training for the upcoming XIV Paralympic Games in London. At the recent XVII Los Angeles Marathon, Mr. Molina took the ninth place in a race that has become very competitive among wheelchair-bound athletes. The first athlete to cross the finish line in Los Angeles was Krige Schabort from Capetown, South Africa. Like Mr. Molina, Mr. Schabort is a wh...

For the upcoming exhibition football match against the Honduran National Team on April 11, coach Jorge Luis Pinto has selected 19 Tico players, minus some talented footballers who are making sports headlines in professional leagues around the world. The lineup was published in online news daily El Pais. Absent from the game will be Bryan Ruiz, who plays for the Fulham of the English Premier...

Richard "El Pirata" Abrams is a true waterman who was trained by the legendary big wave surfer Dempsey Holder and master surf photographer Tom Keck. As a lifeguard, he watched over swimmers and surfers at Imperial Beach in Southern California for 18 years. He came to Playa Dominical to retire and enjoy his golden years in peace. According to a press release published by Surfline, Richard Abrams...

In Playa Hermosa yesterday, Noemar McGonagle was crowned the Quiksilver King of the Groms in Costa Rica for 2012. The 15-year old surfing prodigy had an easy day at the beach yesterday, according to sports news daily Al Dia. The Pavones native will now advance to the next round of the 2012 Quiksilver King of the Groms in Acapulco in July. Should young McGonagle take the crown in Acapulco as...

First Division champion Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) has not enjoyed a good summer tournament thus far, but earlier today the reigning team looked like a champ for 90 minutes. Playing at the fearsome "lair of the purple monster" (the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibas), the LDA "manudos" looked very solid, particularly in the second half when they scored the only two goals of the game. C...

At an official ceremony held last week in Jaco Beach in the Garabito canton, Province of Puntarenas, the coastal resort town was confirmed as one of the host cities for the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. Jaco Beach is the second host location selected outside of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area. There was an additional announcement made at the ceremony: the construction of a new st...

From March 28th through April 1st, 2012, the Vans Pier Classic returns to Huntington Beach, California, and Tico surfer Carlos Munoz will be competing among some of the biggest names in the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). The Vans Pier Classic has been rated a 4-star competition by the ASP, which means that Carlos will be surfing against top-notch talent competing for the $115,000 ...

More than 130 young judokas from different nations participated in the 2nd Kimura International World Cup at the Urraca Institute in Panama. On that tournament, martial artists from Costa Rica took first place in several categories and managed to earn 15 gold medals, 9 silver medals and one bronze medal. The second and third places in the tournament were taken by Panamanian judo teams Kimura an...

Carlos Hernandez Valverde is a talented football player who, like fellow countrymen Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell, has found great success and acclaim abroad. Hernandez has been playing in the Australian A-League, with the Melbourne Victory Football Club, since 2007. Now that his contract is up for negotiation, Australian fans are following his every move. According to sports media site Tribal F...

La Ruta Adventures, a unique travel agency that puts together some of the most exciting trips to Latin America, is better known for La Ruta de los Conquistadores -one of the most grueling mountain bike circuits in the world. La Ruta de los Conquistadores is billed as "More than a race, a personal growth journey", as it takes competitors from Playa Jaco up to the Carara reserve and down to the ...

In the inaugural days of our National Stadium, Gustavo Adolfo Esquivel Quiros -a Tico attorney and football fan- was really excited when he heard that one of his football idols would come to play in Costa Rica. When his idol did not play as expected, he sued the National Football Federation (FEDEFUTBOL) and won. According to Diario Extra, the damages awarded to Esquivel are in the amount of 23...

The headline from the leading sports news daily Al Dia managed to encapsulate the sentiment of Tico football fans last night: "It's a good thing it was just a friendly match." The showdown between the national teams of Costa Rica and Jamaica, respectively known to their fans as La Sele and the Reggae Boyz, was noticeably difficult for both teams. Jamaica concentrated very effectively on defense...

Our shiny new National Stadium, a generous gift bestowed upon us by the People's Republic of China, may look perfect in the eyes of all Ticos, but upon closer inspection the perfection begins to fade away. Such is the sentiment of Diario Extra, a popular newspaper that obtained a copy of an official document that details at least ten deficiencies in our National Stadium that have not been solved a...

Alia Cardinale Villalobos was the first woman to cross the finish line at the 2012 Santiago Triathlon Pan American Cup in Piedra Roja, Chile. The Tica's victory was downright and clear, as her finish time was 2:07:58, while the second and third places in the elite triathlon were 2:10:53 and 2:10:32, respectively earned by Brazilian and South Korean competitors. Alia was born in Ciudad Quesada a...

Tico track star Nery Brenes came back from Istanbul with a huge smile and a shiny gold medal to offer to his people. The current World Champion on the 400-meter category is very deserving of the clamor he is currently enjoying, and the effusiveness he has shown is solid proof. While Nery's incredible athleticism and hard work have certainly paid off, a series of articles in La Nacion indicate that...