Colombia vs Venezuela National Team, 2020 Qualifiers, first game in history without an audience, pandemic | Colombia selection

Never happened. This Friday, October 9, will go down in history as the first time that a Colombian National Team played an official match in complete solitude as home.

The restrictions imposed by the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic will mark this day as the day on which the players, coaches, referees, members of the technical staff, a few guests, vendors, all except in the Metropolitan Stadium of Barranquilla arrived. public.

“The selection always had an audience. This is a case that is out of all consideration. Since 1938 the team that played the Bolivarian Games (first official duel) always had fans in the stands,” explained statistical expert Guillermo Ruiz.

And it is that for the players themselves, the fact of being local in Barranquilla implies, in addition to suffocating weather conditions, a feeling of ‘hell’ due to the intensity with which the fans support and interpret their role as player number 12.

“We cannot enjoy our fans, what the atmosphere of playing in Barranqilla means, but we have the illusion of giving joy to the Colombian people, there are many people who are having a hard time. The conditions are different but the objectives are the same. illusion is renewed in each process “, lamented the own Falcao, national captain.

The truth is that this traditional ‘help’ will not come down from the stands and the heat, one of the strengths in Barranquilla, will not be crucial either, since the game will be at 6:30 pm. It is all new, all atypical. But they are the same conditions for all teams. The difference will necessarily have to be made on the field.