Going into the last game of the regular season, Club Sport Cartagines (CSC) had three options to qualify to the next round of the First Division Summer Tournament in Costa Rica:

1. Winning; taking three points and comfortably advancing.
2. Coming away with a tied score, as long as Saprissa lost against Club Sport Herediano (CSH).
3. Losing, but with the hope that neither CSH or Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA) win their games.

By all accounts, this should have been an easy Sunday for CSC, even if they did not play at their home pitch. They matched up against Limon FC, a team that had a sketchy track record this season. In the first half, the game was mostly downbeat, with neither team formulating any dangerous plays. Towards the end of the first half, the Caribbean players went on the offensive for a bit.

CSC learned in the locker room about CSH leading against Deportivo Saprissa and came out rushing to score after halftime. Limon seemed surprised and resorted to extremely physical play to contain the flurry of attacks by CSC. This strategy ended up in two red cards against Limon. The Caribbean goalkeeper, Erick Sanchez, was very busy after the ejections. With just nine men on the pitch, Limon somehow kept CSC from scoring.

In the end, a very tired striker from Limon -Delberth Cameron- converted an opportunity into the only goal of the game, extinguishing all hopes for CSC.

Residents of Cartago tend to be a bit superstitious when it comes to CSC, their beloved football team. This is a team that was officially formed in 1906, and has won the First Division tournament three times, but not since 1940. After their last victory, Cartago was blessed with the best Tico player of the 20^th century: Rafael Fello Meza Ivankovich. Even with such talent, CSC has been unable to earn a First Division title since before World War II. CSC has even won at the CONCACAF Champions Club level, but not a Costa Rican tournament.

The legendary rash of bad luck of CSC has made the pages of Wikipedia:

“[A curse was set on ] the team by the priest at the Basílica de Los Ángles when in 1940 players stormed the Basilica riding on top of their horses, celebrating their championship; many others credit the lack of titles to the curse of “el muñeco”, a strange voodoo-like doll that was supposedly buried under Cartaginés’ turf at the “Fello Meza” stadium in order to prevent them from winning further titles and bringing bad luck to the club. Many supporters of the club believe that unless someone finds the “magical” doll Cartago will continue to struggle and not win any more championships.”

After today’s ending of the regular season, the teams with a shot at the finals are:

• Perez Zeledon
• Saprissa
• Santos
• Herediano