Galaxy’s Ricketts says Simoes faces tough task in Costa Rica

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Brazil’s Rene Simoes takes over as coach of Costa Rica’s national soccer team this week with the aim of turning around the team’s fortunes in the few games remaining and qualifying the Ticos for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Simoes has a track record of success on this front. In 1998, he was the coach who led the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica to the World Cup in France, where one of his players was current L.A. Galaxy starting goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. Ricketts said the task facing Simoes this time will be anything but easy.

‘It’s not a very good time to come in for Rene Simoes; he has two difficult games coming up’ -- at home against Trinidad and Tobago and on the road against the U.S., Ricketts said. ‘It’s very tight group, and for him to impose his style on the Costa Rica team will be very difficult.’

According to Ricketts, Simoes favors a counter-attacking game.

‘When he came to Jamaica for the ’98 campaign, we were unbeaten at home,’ he said. ‘He plays a very tight defensive game. Everyone is pulled in and you beat them [the opponent] on the break.’ Simoes also is used to having things his own way. ‘He’s a disciplinarian,’ Ricketts said, ‘very, very strict.’

But Costa Rica’s clubs are not in a cooperative mood. Simoes has asked to have two weeks with his players leading up to the final two qualifying games on Oct. 10 and 14, but two of the country’s top club teams, Saprissa and Cartagines, are refusing to release their players for that long.

Costa Rica is in fourth place in the six-nation qualifying group, behind the U.S., Mexico and Honduras. Only the top three go directly to South Africa. The fourth-place finisher faces a two-game playoff with a South American team.

Knowing that the Ticos might be that fourth-place team could have led Costa Rica’s soccer federation into choosing a Brazilian coach, but the clubs’ stance might scuttle Simoes before he even begins.

-- Grahame L. Jones