Mexico, Costa Rica grab big wins in Olympic qualifying

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Feb. 2, 2004) (AP) Defender Mario Perez launched Mexico into the lead in a dominating 3-1 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Monday in the opening of regional Olympic qualifying matches.

Costa Rica also won, with two goals from Roy Myrie, in a 3-0 triumph over Jamaica.

Only two of the eight teams in the tournament for the North and Central American and Caribbean region will advance to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

In the first game of the night, a stumble by Jamaica's Simeon Howell left Myrie unguarded about 15 yards out from the Jamaican goal and he knocked a shot past goalkeeper Richard McCallum 68 minutes into the game.

Five minutes later, against an deteriorating Jamaican defense, Myrie scored off a pass inside the goal box.

After a sloppy start, both Costa Rica and Jamaica started to mount threats around halftime _ but the Central Americans steadily asserted dominance.

Costa Rica began to find routes through Jamaica's defensive wall _ paths that began to look like highways as the Caribbean team seemed to tire at the same time it shifted to a more offensive style in an effort to catch up.

Costa Rica scored a final goal in penalty time as Alvaro Saborio fired a shot that bounced off McCallum to Leonardo Araya, who blasted the ball home.

McCallum repeatedly made diving, leaping saves and was fortunate at 63 minutes when the ball bounced around the goal box between attackers and defenders before it was finally cleared.

COSTA RICA: Adrian De Lemos, Pablo Salazar, Michael Umana, Jose Luis Lopez, Pablo Brenes, Jose Villalobos, Junior Diaz (Leonardo Araya 89), Carlos Hernandez (Warren Granados 62), Alvaro Saborio, Roy Myrie and Winston Parks (Erick Scott 45).

JAMAICA: Richard McCallum, Roland Dean, Christopher Harvey, Garfield Reid, Desmon Breakenridge (Christopher Nicholas 70), Tyron Sawyers, Bradley Thomas, Shaver Thomas, Simeon Howell, Omar Daley (Keith Kelly 59) and Nicholas Addlery (Demar Phillips 75).

REFEREE: Neal Brizan (Trinidad and Tobago).

Pictures by yahoo.