[ad_1]
Domenec Torrent spent years as Pep Guardiola’s assistant, in three different countries before a solo stint in charge of New York City FC. But nothing in his career could have prepared him for his debut match in the Copa Libertadores, the South American Champions League. His new team are Brazilian giants Flamengo, the reigning continental champions, and on Thursday night they were slaughtered 5-0 by Independiente del Valle, a small club from Ecuador.
To be fair, Del Valle is probably the most prominent club in South America right now. They are a small group on the outskirts of Quito and, in the absence of a long tradition and mass support, they are sheltered from the usual populist pressures, which facilitates the execution of their plan. The club exists to develop and sell players. They do so well and are so well managed that they can sell their best assets and remain competitive, both because they have a new generation of young people ready to step up, and because they have a keen eye for the market and are consistently able to attract underrated players and make them useful. They also have a first-rate coach in the young Spanish Miguel Ángel Ramírez, who last year led them to victory in the Copa Sudamericana, equivalent to the CONMEBOL Europa League.
At home you can count on the powerful and undeniable advantage of altitude: Quito is 2,800 meters above sea level. Unacclimatized opponents can find themselves gasping for oxygen in the thin air and goalkeepers risk being surprised by the extra speed of a ball that encounters less air resistance. Playing at height requires specific planning and on Thursday it became clear that Torrent had done nothing.
– Boss uses WhatsApp to train to win the Copa Libertadores
– Vickery: Copa Libertadores resumes with coronavirus still in play
This is no surprise. You have never encountered these conditions before and there has been very little time to plan for any kind. Torrent was appointed at the end of July, just before the start of the Brazilian Championship. Everyone was in a hurry. At the age of 56, Torrent was late to make a name for himself as a head coach, and he could hardly turn down the opportunity. And Flamengo needed to dare to fill the gap left by the sudden resignation of Portuguese coach Jorge Jesús.
The price of the rush was the lack of preparation. There was no extended time in training camp, a luxury Jorge Jesús had enjoyed when he took office in the middle of last year. Torrent was thrown straight to the bottom. He had to meet his players, and with the matches getting more intense, he had to meet a new opponent every three days. Independiente del Valle, both for the quality of the team and the challenges of the conditions, presented the toughest test so far.
In addition, Flamengo is left without the protagonist of its golden phase in the second half of last year, not the most glamorous or striking, but the one that made the team work. The Spanish central Pablo Mari gave the solution to the big question that the then coach Jorge Jesús faced: How could the team efficiently operate a high defensive line?
TOP SOCCER NEWS
• Fuentes: Mourinho wants to sign Lingard
• Shaw: Man Utd needs to sign
• Son scores 4, Kane assists 4 in Spurs’ win
• Sources: Wolves to sign Semedo from Barça
• Pep: I need to get a new contract at Manchester City
• Mane, Liverpool beat 10-man Chelsea
Most Brazilian clubs defend deeply and seek to explode on the counterattack. Jorge Jesus’ Flamengo proposed something very different, more in line with current trends in Europe: Defend high and keep the team lines together in the middle of the rival field. Mari allowed them to pull this off, and she did it so well that she won a move to Arsenal. The defender’s first instinct was to move forward, turn off the danger early. His replacements, Flamengo signed two Brazilian centrals, they don’t feel comfortable doing this. Even before Jorge Jesus jumped ship, the 2020 team was not performing as well as last year. With Mari they could stay much more compact.
On Thursday night, against Independiente del Valle, Flamengo really needed to stay compact. The art of the trick for non-altitude acclimatized sides is to run as little as possible. The home team will try to make the field big, making big diagonal passes to the flanks. Visitors must stay in a block. They must avoid the temptation to defend deep (shots from a distance are a danger) and must stay close enough to run the clock on a game of possession. It helps enormously to have a couple of quick players up front, as this forces the opposition to fall back, and the visitors can launch two- or three-man attacks, giving the rest of the team some breathing space.
But Torrent left his fast wingers on the bench. He tried to mark Independiente del Valle high, close to his own goal, especially in the second half, when everything fell apart.
With Flamengo’s defensive line reluctant to come forward, this left a large hole in midfield, space that the well-trained Ecuadorians proved adept at exploiting. They moved the ball well, went through the channels and tore the champions to pieces.
Torrent can put the 5-0 beating on experience and, as he said after the game, it’s just a case of losing three points. The raw and cold truth is that Flamengo is still well on its way to reach the round of 16 of the competition.
It is being described as ‘one of the greatest misfortunes Flamengo has experienced’. So what’s next for Mengao’s new boss, Dome Torrent? JOSE JACOME / AFP via Getty Images
But if height is a new complication in his life, another is the pressure of commanding a Flamengo team that loses by this type of margin.
According to Luis Fernando Gomes in the Brazilian sports newspaper “¡Lance!”, Torrent “does not understand the world he lives in now. It is not just about three points won by Independiente and lost by Flamengo, as he argued. What happened was a lot more than this. It was one of the greatest misfortunes that Flamengo has experienced in its history. This type of thing cannot happen to Flamengo “.
And so the pressure increases. Flamengo is still in Ecuador for his next Libertadores game, away to Barcelona de Guayaquil on Tuesday. Barcelona have lost all three of their games in the competition and must win to have any hope of staying alive. This time the game is at sea level.
Another defeat would not be fatal for Flamengo, but it would be bad news for Torrent. He’s fast discovering that it’s one thing to be an MLS assistant, or even head coach, and quite another to be in charge of a giant club in Brazil with relentless expectations.
Source: espn.co.uk
[ad_2]