Saprissa saw off Escorpionones Belén 2:1 on Monday night in the sixth round of the Apertura. The hosts took their time to impose themselves, but the three points were always going to end up in their favour given the gap in quality between the sides.
G. Torres gave Saprissa the lead in the thirty-fifth minute. From then on the home side controlled the tempo, though Escorpionones Belén kept pushing forward whenever they caught a break. H. Medford picked up a yellow card in the thirty-ninth minute, a sign of the growing frustration on the away bench.
The second half brought the decisive moment. A. Soto equalised for Belén in the fifty-fifth minute, and for a few minutes it looked as if the visitors might snatch something from the match. Then C. Munoz struck back in the fifty-eighth, and the game was effectively over. By then the home side had already seen K. Waston, A. Fernandez, A. Hidalgo and N. Williams come on to steady the ship.
The statistics told the same story. Saprissa enjoyed two-thirds of possession and registered eleven shots on target against Belén's two. They also had ten corners to four, and their attack count of 115 was nearly double the visitors' 65. Shots accuracy sat at 0.48 for the hosts compared with 0.2 for Belén, which explains why the scoreline reflected the dominance.
Saprissa remain top of the table with fifteen points from six games, having lost only once. Belén sit ninth with four points from six, their form continuing to be a concern. The hosts had dropped points in their last two outings — a 1:2 defeat to Olimpia and a 0:1 loss to Inter San Carlos — but this result suggests they are back on track.
The win extends Saprissa's grip on the early stages of the tournament. Belén will need to find consistency if they are to climb away from the bottom half, and at 0.67 versus 0.33 in possession, the gap between the two sides remains wide.
