Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Real Salt Lake vs. Deportivo Saprissa

On Wednesday, Real Salt Lake will face Deportivo Saprissa from Costa Rico at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Here is what I could dig up about Saprissa, most of my info is from Wikipedia so it could be right or wrong.

Keepers:
José Francisco Porras - Captain of the Costa Rican National Team
Fausto González - known as "El Golero Loco" for his attempts to confuse rivals during penalty shots.
Keylor Navas - Promising young player.

Defense:
Víctor Cordero - Plays for Costa Rican National Team
Gabriel Badilla - Rumored to be talking with the New England Revolution. Young player who is on the Costa Rican National Team.

Midfield:
Walter Centeno Corea - Played for AEK Athens FC who participated in the 2002 Champions League. Has 107 Caps for the Costa Rican National Team.

Forward:
Rónald Gómez - Has 83 caps and 24 goals for the Costa Rican National Team.

It seems about half of the team plays for the Costa Rica National Team. Saprissa has fans which call themselves "The Purple Ultra"
Saprissa has two major highlights, one being the fact they finished 3rd in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup behind Sao Paulo FC and Liverpool FC and the other highlight was when Saprissa became the first Latin American soccer team to travel around the world.
The team has been dubbed "The Purple Monster" by Costa Rican press.

It should be a good game for the RSL Reserves. I see Kries using a similar lineup as he did with the Santos game - a few starters start the game and most of the reserves get action.

I think if we go up 2-0 after half, Reynish will get some time in goal.

I wonder if the atmosphere in the stadium will be similar to the Santos game.

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