Costa Rica's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup are now in the hands of a coach who is familiar with qualifying for the tournament.
The Costa Rican Federation hired Brazilian Rene Simoes to replace Rodrigo Kenton as head coach on Wednesday. He will make his debut when Costa Rica faces Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 10.
Simoes first gained notoriety in the CONCACAF region by leading Jamaica to the 1998 World Cup. He followed that up with a stint as Trinidad & Tobago head coach prior to the 2002 World Cup. After a stint in women's soccer as the head coach of Brazil's Olympic silver medal-winning team, Simoes returned to the men's game, eventually returning to lead Jamaica. He was unable to get Jamaica past the second-round group stage (in a group that included Mexico, Honduras and Canada), and was fired.
Simoes most recently spent time coaching in his native Brazil, including a stint with Fluminense, before taking over Costa Rica on Wednesday.
What do you think of this hire? Relieved it wasn't someone like Leo Beenhaker? Worried that it's a head coach who is familiar with the United States? Don't think it will matter on Oct. 14 when the United States faces Costa Rica at RFK Stadium?
Share your thoughts below.
As a Jamaican I have a tremendous amount of respect for his taking our country to the World Cup in 1998. However I fear that at Costa Rica hiring him at this stage might be too late. I wish him the best though.
Win at Honduras and it doesn’t matter. In fact, Costa Rica might expect a B-squad if the US pulls out a win in Honduras.
Well, considering the way CR has played lately, what can they lose? Let’s just worry about getting ourselves qualified for WC2010 and let them worry about the CONMEBOL playoff.
good coach a very decent man
I still say it’s a mistake to have fired Kenton so close to the end of qualifiers.
I remember Soccer Canada tried to sign Simoes… too bad we have a corrupt system.
Simoes is a coach familiar with qualifying in CONCACAF, so I think it is a good hire. If you go with a foreign coach this late in qualifying, it should be someone familiar with opponents. Though if he fails to impress in two remaining games, I expect him to be dismissed for the play-off with S. American teams.
I don’t think it was a good idea firing Kenton, not this late in qualifying that is. I mean can you really expect Simoes to do much before the next two matches? Will he even see the team prior to the next game vs T&T? He’ll get a week with them at most. I would schedule a friendly against Guatemala or Panama if I were him.
I’m curious to see who T&T will bring to that match. I mean, they are out, but will they still bring their starters? Or will they bring a bunch of young unknown players.
Three teams–Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras–are competing for two spots in the World Cup. One will get an automatic bid as a third-place team and the other goes to a playoff with the fifth place team in CONEMBOL (Argentina?). If it happens to be Costa Rica, Simoes is the right coach. He would have had two games as head of the Ticos by that time.
Simoes might be a better coach, but to learn a team, a system, in less than a month in a 2 game must win! Good Luck.
If Costa Rica gets an autobid, he’ll be held in very high regard
Nguyen is training with Arsenal, but that’s not “new” news, exactly. When he went to the Vietnamese team, which has a connection to Arsenal, he did so with the expectation that he would be able to train with Arsenal this summer. I don’t think he ever planned to play more than a year with the team in Vietnam.
It’s not a trial. It’s an opportunity to train.
Simoes is Bora on a smaller scale. He is a great choice for them. Costa Rica will stand a better chance to qualify than they did a day ago.
I think the SI item said Nguyen is training with Arsenal — not necessarily a “trial,” although I guess if Wenger sees something others have missed . . .
Simoes sure does a lot of ‘stint’in, Ives.
I just don’t think it will matter.
Playing at home, against a T&T with nothing to play for, should be three points regardless of the coach, be it Kenton, Simoes, Beenhaker, Steve Sampson, Ives or me.
And the odds of the US losing at home to the Ticos is very slim and for all Simoes alleged success in CONCACAF, he’s never beaten the US and Costa Rica hasn’t beaten the US at home in a game that mattered in a quarter century. (A 1-0 win in a WC qualifier in 1985 in California.)
Costa Rica might still qualify but it will be because they have good players and already got several good results, not because they hired Rene Simoes.
Off topic, and I’m sure its been mentioned already in comments prior to this, but I read on Sports Illustrated’s website that Lee Nguyen is on trial at Arsenal.
Kind of a leap, but at least he’s out of the Vietnamese league. Best of luck to the kid. Didn’t realize he’s still only 22.
Simoes is a good coach and reportedly a very nice guy.
Having said that, I think that firing Kenton was possibly a mistake.
With only a couple games left to play I am not sure how much of a difference he can really make.
Obviously all of the top four teams are trying to avoid the repachaje/playin game with the CONMEBOL side that might possibly end up being Argentina (how crazy is that)?
Well I don’t think he will do worse then he did with Jamaica’s qualifying campaign.