Deportivo Saprissa down valiant Sydney outfit

Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa have defeated a resilient Sydney FC outfit 1-0 tonight in the first round of the Club World Championship at Toyota Stadium in Nagoya, courtesy of a classy finish from Christian Bolanos.

For Sydney, Dwight Yorke, David Carney, and Alvin Ceccoli toiled hard all night, while Sasho Petrovski came close to scoring on numerous occasions.

For Saprissa, also known as the Purple Monster, Bolanos scored the all-important goal in the second half, while goalkeeper and captain Jose Porras made many vital saves.

Sydney coach Pierre Littbarski had made the game plan clear to all his players at the start of the match. Littbarski’s plan was to make it extremely difficult for the Costa Rican’s to develop any flow and rhythm, to dominate the possession and to play a smooth, fast, attacking game.

Littbarkski almost had reason to celebrate in only the third minute with Carney making a fast break and almost putting it past Porras.

A minute later, captain Yorke had a long-range shot on goal, and to the disappointment of Sydney fans, putting it wide.

At the seventh minute mark Littbarski would’ve suffered heart murmurs as goalkeeper Clint Bolton made an amazing save to deny the Purple Monster.

Not to be outdone, seven minutes later Porras produced an amazing save of his own, getting a hand to a scintillating shot from Petrovski.

In the shadows of half-time, Yorke went agonizingly close to putting Sydney in front, firing a header just wide. Sydney went into the break with their heads up and the scores locked at 0-0.

Whatever Hernan Medford said to his boys at half-time definitely got them going, as they decided to take the long route to the front-third, with Bolanos gathering and finishing with class within the third minute of the half.

The next 20 minutes proved to be a stalemate, as neither team added to the scoresheet, only the cards column, with Ronald Gomez, Walter Centeno and Mark Milligan all receiving yellow cards for their respective teams.

Just as Sydney begun to string together some meaningful possession all hope was lost, as star defender Ceccoli was handed a dubious red card by referee Toru Kamikawa for a high challenge on Porras.

While Sydney threw everything at the Purple Monster, Saprissa managed to counter-attack on two occasions, with both producing dazzling saves from Bolton.

Unfortunately, time ran out for Sydney, with Deportivo Saprissa claiming victory.

After the match, coach Littbarski told Fox Sports that he was pleased that his team fought until the end.

"After the goal it was difficult to get back, and the red card meant we were close to death," he noted.

"But the team fought until the end and they can be happy."

"I thought David Carney was outstanding, as was the combination of Sasho (Petrovski) and Kazu (Miura) and Dwight (Yorke) worked hard in midfield. Up until his red card, (Alvin) Ceccoli was also impressive."

Sydney will now play-off for fifth position against African representative Al Ahly, while Deportivo Saprissa go head to head with European champions Liverpool in the semi-final.

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