News out of Utah today is bad news if you’re a Real Salt Lake fan, but potentially terrible news for Costa Rica’s ongoing bid to reach the 2014 World Cup.
The Deseret News reports today that Alvaro Saborio’s quad injury will keep the Costa Rican international sidelined for perhaps several weeks. He suffered the injury in practice late last week and missed Saturday’s loss to the LA Galaxy.
(So, for that set who believes Saborio is over-valued because “all he does is score goals,” well, here you go. We talked about this previously.)
The subplot here (or the main plot line, perhaps, if Saborio’s time in the treatment room goes beyond three or four weeks) is what impact this has on June qualifiers. June is huge, with all six nations involved in final round qualifying set to play three times.
Costa Rica hosts Honduras on June 7, visits Mexico four nights later and then hosts Panama on June 18. (The complete CONCACAF final round schedule is here.)
The quad injury isn’t likely to extend into June. But will the fourth-year MLS man be fit and sharp?
Along with Panama’s Blas Perez, Mexico’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernadez and perhaps Clint Dempsey, Saborio is among the region’s top marksman still involved in the World Cup chase. Saborio has seven goals in 2014 qualifying, second only to Perez (9 goals) among active strikers.
The Ticos are currently tied for second along with the United States and Honduras in the six-team “Hexagonal.”