SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – When it comes to all things Concacaf, Hernan Medford has seen it and experienced it all.
One of the most accomplished Costa Rican players in history, Medford accrued his fair share of achievements, and ranking among his top successes was helping Deportivo Saprissa win the 1993 Concacaf Champions Cup as a player and then 12 years later repeating that feat as Head Coach of the Monstruo Morado.
In both instances, Saprissa had to overcome opponents from Mexican football, beginning Medford’s legacy of helping Costa Rican teams defeat Mexican opposition.
“Beating Mexican teams is something I did as a player, playing in a Concacaf tournament with Saprissa and beating Puebla, later going to a quadrangular that had Club Leon and ending up as the champion of the Concacaf as a player. I did it as a coach of Saprissa, too, so at the player and coaching level, I did well against Mexican teams,” said Medford in an exclusive interview with Concacaf.com.
“It was a great moment [in 1993]. It was a quadrangular that was played in Guatemala and in the end, we won the tournament on goal difference. We had to beat the Suriname team [SV Robinhood] by four goals. It wasn’t easy and it remains in history as being one of the [three] Concacaf championships that Saprissa have won.”
Twelve years later in the 2005 Concacaf Champions Cup, Medford was on the sidelines as Saprissa Head Coach and knew something special was happening within his team when they defeated Monterrey in the semifinals via a penalty shootout.
“When we eliminated Monterrey in the semifinals, we tied here [2-2] and we went there and we were losing and a man down, but after a while we drew level and got to penalties and eliminated Monterrey. That gave me a lot of confidence in the team that it could do well in the final against Pumas, and against Pumas with a lot of merit we won the Final,” said Medford.
In that Final against Pumas, Saprissa played an exquisite 90 minutes of football in the first leg in a 2-0 final, and then managed things well enough in the second leg to emerge with a 3-2 triumph on aggregate.
“It was a very good series. It was a 3-2 win on aggregate and we were able to win the title there on Pumas’ field. It was great to celebrate there in Mexico such an important championship like the Concacaf Champions Cup,” Medford.
Those two trophy-lifting events sandwich another great moment in Medford’s career in June 2001, as his late second-half goal earned Costa Rica a 2-1 win against Mexico during Concacaf World Cup Qualifying for Korea/Japan 2002, making Costa Rica the first visiting team to win a World Cup qualifier at Mexico City’s famed Estadio Azteca.
“I’ve been very lucky and I have been able to do things well and celebrate in Mexico,” said Medford with a slight chuckle.
Saprissa’s Concacaf conquest in 2005 earned the Tico outfit a spot in the 2005 FIFA Club World Cup, where Saprissa became the first Concacaf team to finish in third-place in the tournament.
“The Club World Cup is something very important because a third-place in the Club World Cup is something only a few teams have done: Pachuca, Monterrey and Saprissa. We are part of history and that is something very important for Costa Rican football,” said Medford.
But since Saprissa’s 2005 Concacaf Champions Cup title, no team from outside of Mexican football has been able to break Liga MX’s hold on the regional club championship, including every version of the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, which started in 2008-09.
Nevertheless, the current Cartagines Head Coach is optimistic that another Costa Rican club can rise up like his Saprissa side did 15 years ago.
“It’s not easy because the Mexican teams are always well put together, they can sign great players, but in football anything can happen at any moment. Hopefully at some point a team from Costa Rica can feel that special feeling of winning Concacaf and going to a Club World Cup,” concluded Medford.
