Costa Rica's Saprissa wins first game in soccer clubs World Cup

Costa Rican fans celebrated on Monday after local soccer club Deportivo Saprissa won its first game in the World Cup for league clubs being held in Japan, local press said on Monday.

Saprissa, champion of the northern part of the Central America and Caribbean Foootball Federation (Concacaf), beat the Oceania's Sydney FC 1-0 in Tokyo.

Cristian Bolanos scored the only goal of the game in the 48th minute, enough to put Saprissa through to the semi-final where they play powerful English team Liverpool.

The game was followed closely all over Costa Rica, even though fans had to get up very early to watch it. Kick-off came at 0420 Costa Rica time due to the time difference.

The early hour could not stop groups of people from meeting to celebrate around San Jose, before the start of the working day. The local press reported the victory as "historic" and "the most important in the history of the club" and fans celebrated the victory with great excitement.

"Saprissa made history," team manager Hernan Medford, told local media from Japan. "It was a tough game, but we are ready to face Liverpool. It was a game that made us work hard. Sydney is a good team: they defended themselves well and they forced us to defend ourselves. You can be very happy with a victory like that," the manager said.

Medford declined detailed comment on Liverpool game due on Thursday in the Yokohama Stadium.

"It is an important game with one of Europe's big teams. Right now I want to enjoy the victory. We will speak of Liverpool later."

Director general of the club Jorge Alarcon said he was very happy, because the club had doubled its winnings by reaching the quater-final -- to two million US dollars from one million and show itself to be one of the four greatest teams in the world.

Saprissa, founded in 1935, has won 23 national championships, three Concacaf championships, has been second place in Concacaf 15 times and second place in the InterAmerican championship twice.

Source: Xinhua