Why would an American watch DC United play Saprissa in Costa Rica?

A minute-by-minute adventure in Costa Rican futbol.

7:34pm – I totally forgot that CONCACAF Champions League group bottom dwellers, recent U.S. Cup Champions, and MLS mid-table holders D.C. United were visiting beautiful Costa Rica to try to even the score against a virtually unknown and very resilient Deportivo Saprissa team.

8:05pm – A visit to espn.com tells me that D.C. United is up 1-0 after only 5 minutes of play. Thank you for Liberian-born Francis Doe.

8:45pm – Medio Tiempo. Meghan and I head for a walk through the sleepy town of Nuevo Arenal to find a local “Tipico Tico” bar alive with conversation, loud whistling and a mysterious green hew on their televisions…Do I dare venture in to watch the game? Well, I will act like I am going in for the Imperial cervezas at 700 colones a piece ($1.26). Meghan how about a rum con fresca?

8:55pm – Why can’t the bartender understand that a cuba libre is a “rum con cola”? I need to work on my Spanish. Did I just hear someone speaking English?

9:00pm – Secundo Tiempo, ok lets see how D.C.’s reserves look…

9:03pm – A dubious offsides call by the Mexican officials takes away a nice header goal by Saprissa off “El Matador” Alpiraz’s free kick. My smile notes who I am supporting, I forgot where I was.

9:15pm – D.C. looks awful! They can barely put passes together, I totally forgot we had strikers, and Saprissa looks strong, fast, and determined…and so do their supporters in the bar.

9:25pm- 60^th minute, we found an American who married his 20-something Tica girlfriend not too long ago and lives right by the lake. His name is Gaia and is pretty nice.

9:35pm – 75^th minute, Saprissa should have scored by now, and you could feel it as they were knocking on Zack Well’s door many times that one of these had to find the back of the net. We found some young Ticos who spoke about as much English as we spoke Spanish, not much, but they were nice enough to let us watch in their bar.

9:38pm- Not ten seconds after I tried to tell them this was about the time when D.C. gave up crucial goals, sure enough…Cesar Elizondo pounds it in the back of the onion bag. 1-1, shots of tequila on the house, I reluctantly accept with the response “Soy de Washington.” They just smile and cheer me. Salud!

9:42pm – Are you serious?! D.C. is now down 2-1. Again it is Elizondo and again it is because they can’t clear the ball. More tequila is passed around with bigger smiles and louder cheers combined with song. Again “Soy de Washington.”

9:49pm – D.C. finally found their top players and were pushing on the Purple defense. A nice shot with a better save leads to a corner in stoppage time. How awesome would it be if, HOLY SHIT! The goalie missed the Burch cross and it hit off Dyachenko’s chest into the net. I start to scream, then realized where I was. I think the tequila might come back up.

9:50pm – The final whistle blows, the bar is quiet, all I can do is smile and laugh nervously. I buy a couple of beers for our new friends to toast their team’s effort.

12:05am – Good thing it is only about 200 meters to our house. Crazy night!