Rejoice, futbol fans, because finally after a very long hiatus (though time moves awfully quick these days) there will be some exciting matches played very soon in the Concacaf region. The Costa Rican government and Ministry of Health have given the green light to restart the Liga FPD on May 20th. There are seven weeks of regular season play left, with the top four teams in the twelve-team league making the playoffs. The matchdays have been condensed so that the regular season may finish on June 10th, with the playoffs running until June 24th, or July 1st, if a Gran Final is required. You can watch the league's full press conference (in Spanish) here.
Simply put, it is exciting to see the return of one of Concacaf's highest quality and most fun leagues. For those unfamiliar with the Liga FPD: it absolutely slaps. The top 3 sides, Alajuelense, Herediano, and Saprissa all have the look of Central American all-star teams and consistently play at a very high level, though Ala are just coming out of a stretch of a few rough seasons. Newly promoted Jicaral are currently holding down the 4th and final playoff spot, and should they qualify it would be the second consecutive Clausura in which the league's only newly promoted team reached the playoffs; San Carlos won the whole thing one year ago in their first year back in the top flight after a stint in the Liga de Ascenso.
Jornada 16 will be headlined by league leaders Saprissa hosting 3rd placed Herediano with an awful lot to play for. The league format mandates that if the #1 seed fails to win the playoffs, they get a second chance via a home-and-away series with the playoff champion. Thus, Saprissa will not be sitting on their comfortable playoff position but rather pushing for a win to help lock up that 1st place finish.
But of course, you may be, and in fact you probably are, reading this and thinking that this all just doesn't seem right. Sports around the world are coming back far too soon. This feeling of guilt has become very normal for us, who all very much want to see the return of the games we love but also know they aren't worth risking the safety of the people involved. This feeling completely tainted the delightful finish to the Nicaraguan League last month, which played straight through the pandemic despite disapproval from many players and turned the rest of the season into an uncomfortable mess.
And as the Bundesliga, Premier League, and Major American Leagues begin to roll out dates for their returns that seem far too good to be true or safe, the feeling persists. Back on April 11th I started watching Taiwanese baseball, and the Rakuten Monkeys have provided some much-needed guilt-free sporting stability in my life. Taiwan has handled the crisis with aplomb so far, and the league feels very safe. So safe, in fact, that they've started letting fans back into the seats so long as they remain socially distanced. Other people have started following the KBO, South Korea's baseball league which started its season last week. And K-League Football resumed last weekend too, as Korea continues to minimize cases even as a second cluster sprung up a few days ago.
I say all of this to say that there are some guilt-free sports to watch out there, even if eSports or Marbula 1 aren't your thing. And I'm happy to say that the Liga FPD can be added to that list. Costa Rica's renowned healthcare system, contact tracing, and diligence in battling the virus have proven to be very effective, and the country has had just a touch over 800 cases total. Of course, the population of Costa Rica (5 million) is much smaller than that of Germany or England, who both are looking to resume their leagues in a similar time frame, but it's still a very low and very encouraging number. The cases have plateaued at about a dozen a day. I am no epidemiologist and you shouldn't take your pandemic advice from me, but if you do some homework on the subject you're going to read a lot of praise for Costa Rica's success and little evidence to contradict it.
With matches scheduled to be played behind closed doors and all players and team staff adhering to safety precautions when traveling, I think it is fair to say that (for now) it is safe for the league to return and it is perfectly okay to enjoy the final weeks of the playoff chase (and tense relegation battle! Vamos UCR!). Of course, with this virus, cases could rise in Costa Rica over the next month and things could get icky again, but for now we can all take a sweet dose of football medicine for our ailing minds. Stay safe out there, everyone.
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