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The Libertadores Cup it has become a constant frustration for Colombian soccer in recent years. From the highly celebrated Atlético Nacional title in 2016, only one team, Nacional himself, has made it past the group stage. From then on, they have all been resounding failures, from teams that were disarmed along the way, as happened with Medellín and America this year, to huge investments that were useless, like the one Junior made with Miguel Borja, who even finished out in a couple of games.
Without Colombians among the 16 best teams on the continent, reflections began to emerge to try to understand why our teams are less and less competitive in South America. It seems that the National Cup in 2016, the victory of Santa Fe in the Suramericana in 2015 and the final that Junior reached in this same tournament in 2018 were isolated cases.
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Luis Amaranto Perea, who took the reins of Junior after the quarantine and the title that Julio Comesaña had won in the Super League, was the first to try to get an explanation for what happened.
“It is not just a Junior issue, these intensities cost us, when we go out to compete it costs us, our league is not so strong as to think that we are going internationally and with the rhythm it will catch up with us. We have good players, but if we compete with these teams like Flamengo, they are superior ”, said Perea, trained as a coach in Europe, but who is just having his second experience as head of the group, after his time at Leones in 2018-19.
What happened to Junior, in that specific game at the Maracana that cost him elimination, has an aggravation: Although he is the current champion of the Libertadores, Flamengo played with substitutes that day.
It is not just a Junior issue, these intensities cost us, when we go out to compete it costs us, our league is not so strong as to think that we go out internationally
Amaranth’s reflection broadens the discussion. What are we playing in Colombia? And the question has to do both in the form, what each team puts on the field, and in the background, which is related to the championship system and the urgent need to respond in the local tournament, which has a calendar very tight.
The issue of how to play in the country generated a long and hard reflection from the Atlético Nacional coach, Juan Carlos Osorio, who managed to play a South American Cup final with that club in 2014 and that same year reached the quarterfinals of the Libertadores.
“No team in Colombia plays possession football; And I reiterate, of the 30 goals that any team may have, it does not have 10 goals with a sequence of passes in the middle third or in the opposite field. That does not exist in our football. We don’t have a dynamic league either, we lack intensity; for example, yesterday (Wednesday), after (Junior’s) game, you can see that internationally we lack intensity “, Osorio declared.
That same reflection comes from the outside, with Colombian eyes. In an interview with Futbolred, Mauricio Sánchez, a field assistant for RB Leipzig, a semi-finalist in the Champions League, recounted the main differences between Colombian football and what is seen in Europe.
“In the Colombian soccer culture, much structure is still lacking. We are still a long way from being able to compare ourselves in football with the powers. We can no longer say that all players are equal. It requires a soccer structure that unfortunately is still absent in Colombia ”, Sánchez explained. “If we compare the statistics of playing time in German football with Colombian football, it is almost double that there is no game in Colombia,” he added.
There is another factor that influences the fluidity of the game: in Colombia many more offenses are sanctioned than in Europe. And in that they have to do both the approach of the teams and the decisions of the judges, who constantly cut the game. The Spanish League is the one with the highest foul average in Europe: 13.8 per game. In the first 15 dates of the Colombian League, in 150 games, 4,571 infractions were sanctioned: 30.47 per game. More than double …
All of this is reflected in the actual playing time. In the first 15 dates of the Colombian League, the average was 50 minutes and 49 seconds. Curiously, the team with the most effective playing time is the last in the table: Patriotas de Boyacá (55:01 minutes).
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The three Colombian teams that played in the Libertadores group stage this year have a common factor: they all changed coaches on the fly. In Junior, the change of Amaranto Perea for Julio Comesaña was already mentioned. In America, during the pandemic, Alexandre Guimarães’ contract ended and Juan Cruz Real arrived. And in Medellín, Aldo Bobadilla was fired (who, in addition to the results, left due to an incident with a journalist) and Javier Álvarez ended up in charge.
This is a reflection of the maelstrom that Colombian football is experiencing, where being a coach has become a high-risk profession.. Today, the oldest coach in the League is Hubert Bodhert, who arrived at Once Caldas in December 2017. Apart from him, only César Torres, from Alianza Petrolera, has been in charge for more than a year and a half.
The championship system has a lot to do with that, which gives a team the chance to be champion without getting 50 percent of the points. The eighth, before starting date 16, was Junior, who had a 48.9 percent return. And in case of classifying, he entered on equal terms with the first. The tournament is level in the middle, being generous.
To this we must add that in Colombia there are two champions per year. Juan Carlos Osorio is in favor of having only one annual star.
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The covid-19 pandemic also affected the clubs that were still in the Libertadores. Medellín lost Adrián Arregui, Juan Fernando Caicedo and Francisco Flores. America, to Pedro Franco, Matías Pisano and Michael Rangel. That also affects performance. That is why the Cup is already history for Colombia.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Deputy Editor
@josasc
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