CONCACAF: Rodrigo Kenton On Hot Seat
Until last month, Rodrigo Kenton had done a remarkable job as Costa Rican Manager. Replacing Hernan Medford, a playing legend after the Ticos struggled to get past Grenada in the second round of CONCACAF qualifying; Kenton had racked up ten wins, and one loss in eleven qualifying matches.
But in its last two matches, The Ticos have been outscored seven goals to nil, including an embarrassing 3-0 home loss to rival Mexico. What looked like certain World Cup qualification is now at best 50-50, and more likely going to be very difficult.
Now Costa Rica travels to El Salvador, a place where they won 3-1 in the last qualifying round. But given the Salvadorians near dominant performance against the Ticos in the first match of this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, and Costa Rica’s recent form, this game is going to be difficult.
Kenton’s panicky squad changes after losing to Honduras in August, helped to further unsettle team. Right now, Costa Rica looks a sure bet in its current form to finish 4th in Hexagonal and thus be forced to play off with the fifth place team from COMNEBOL.
Published reports out of Costa Rica indicate that if Medford does not right the ship this Wednesday in San Salvador, he may be sacked. This would represent a dramatic and shocking turn of events for a coach who looked assured of making the World Cup, just one month ago.
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I wish Bradley were in the same position. He should be fired if we don’t beat T&T.
Costa Rica still plays T&T and El Salvador, so they’ll be fine.
They will have a hard time in El Salvador. But if they somehow get 3 pts there, the US are in trouble.
If they do get that 4th spot i still think they have a really good chance of qualifying. They most likely will play either a Colombia, ecuador, or uruguay. if they can hold their own at home and get a good win at saprissa it should be enough to get them qualified.
i dont think the playoff team will have the quality of players mexico has and it would be nice to see the top four teams in the region in the world cup and i think they will surprise so people