Neither of the two protagonists of the goal that put Santa Fe in the final had been on the field for a minute. What’s more, neither of them had touched the ball. They were 86 minutes of a game that the Reds had to work hard. And Santa Fe ended up winning with the same old formula, with something that is a factory stamp.
Free kick from the right, all of Santa Fe, except the goalkeeper, in the visiting area. Mauricio Gómez, who had just entered for Kelvin Osorio, put the ball into the area. And Patricio Cucchi, who had replaced Kelvin Osorio seconds ago, got the right handlebar.
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Equidad raised a game to hold the tie and then try to find a way to get some advantage. To apply that game plan, coach Alexis García dispensed with one of his banners, Stalin Motta, to add one more defender.
Santa Fe, on the other hand, kept the same plan as always, changing two main interpreters: the first, Fabián Sambueza, who, despite the desk maneuvers to try to enable him, had to pay the penalty date for the expulsion in the Going. And the second, goalkeeper Leandro Castellanos, who had a muscle discomfort in the warm-up. He was replaced by Ómar Rodríguez.
As the game turned out in those first minutes, Equidad ended up neutralizing himself, because he did not attack and they did attack him a lot. Santa Fe had already had a couple of options when, at 25 minutes, he scored 1-0 in a play that Jorge Luis Ramos began and ended himself: pass to the left for Jhon Velásquez, Kelvin Osorio’s distraction to take the mark and Ramos auction after the return of the red 10, which has been key in the finals.
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Equidad didn’t try Rodriguez’s hands in the entire first half. Alexis García realized and moved the team to look for something else: he took out a side, Andrés Correa, and put a hitch, Kevin Salazar. And in the first 15 minutes of the second half, the visitors did more for the game than in the entire first stage.
Although Santa Fe reacted a bit and removed the danger, Equidad insisted until at 23 minutes, Salazar tied the game with a left-footed shot from the edge of the area, after a touch behind Hansel Zapata.
Hárold Rivera, the Santa Fe coach, refreshed the team in search of regaining the advantage: brand midfielder by brand midfielder (Pedroza by Pérez) and striker by
steering wheel (Valdés by Seijas).
Equidad, after scare Santa Fe on a corner kick that led to two consecutive shots at the posts, returned to the initial plan, by putting another left back, Amaury Torralvo, in place of Pablo Sabbag. And Santa Fe became superior again. Until the goal came, with the formula of the last ten years and with two players who had not even touched it. And so Santa Fe, the best team of the year, is in the final.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Deputy Editor
@josasc
.
