Reinaldo Rueda returns to the scene: on September 4, 2005, Colombia lost the classification to Germany World Cup 2006 when falling 3-2 against Uruguay, in Montevideo. Uruguay went to the repechage that time with only one point more than the sixth, the eliminated Colombia led by Rueda.
Next Thursday, when a new World Cup qualifying match between Uruguay and Colombia is played at the Centenario Stadium, 16 years, a month and three days will have passed since a sadly unforgettable match for Rueda and Colombia.
(Also read: Millos, mission accomplished: he beat Águilas and is the leader of the reclassification)
Uruguay easily won 2-0 with goals from Marcelo Zalayeta, a big and powerful ebony center-forward, to an erratic Colombia, in which its captain and defensive bastion, the defender Iván Ramiro Córdoba, had a game full of flaws and cons.
But as mysteries the holy father football has, out of nowhere, really with nothing, Colombia tied in just two minutes, and in the final stretch of the game: at minute 79, Elkin Soto with a surprise left-foot from afar, discounted. Golazo. And in a thunder of fingers, in 81, Juan Pablo Ángel, with a header under the goal, sent Uruguay to the canvas.
With the tie in his pocket, a few minutes after the end of the game and with fifth place to go to the play-off, Reinaldo Rueda surprised with a change: one minute after Ángel’s goal, in minute 82, he sent the scorer to the field. Martin ‘Toro’ Arzuaga instead of Luis Gabriel Rey, another forward. Instead of ‘closing the game’ with a player with a strong leg, fresh lungs, brand and defense, he wanted to win the game. That decision was the ammonia that Rueda put in Uruguay’s nose, which got up from the ‘one-two’ on the chin and reacted in search of the victory that was indispensable.
And so it happened: four minutes later, in 85, Iván Ramiro, who had already ‘eaten’ the first goal for not bursting it at 18, made a mistake again and Zalayeta scored again: 3-2, final defeat and, red bunting, the classification was over.
Days later, before the next game, against Chile (1-1, in Barranquilla), Rueda told the reason for his determination. He confessed, words more, words less, that if he had put in a brand midfielder and there had been another goal, as it happened, the criticism would have crushed him for being a coward and not having taken advantage of the fact that Uruguay was ‘liquidated’ in the 2- 2 surprise to go for the victory and secure the classification.
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However, the specialists, the ‘prophets of the past’ as he well calls them Jorge ValdanoEven today, 16 years later, they crush him, because they blame him for that defeat and that elimination for trying to win, when the most difficult thing had already been done and the draw was enough.
Amaranto Perea (left) scores Richard Morales in Uruguay 3, Colombia 2 in 2005.
AFP – EL TIEMPO Archive
# “Rueda and Colombia found the lottery jackpot ticket lying on the Centennial grass … and they threw it away!” I wrote that time.
Four days after that decisive defeat, all the National Team players sent a letter to the then President of the Republic, Álvaro Uribe, to encourage the negotiation of a collective labor agreement with the Colombian Association of Professional Footballers (Acolfutpro) or, otherwise they would go on strike.
That defined the future of Rueda in the National Team: even if he would have drawn or won 16 years ago, a month and almost three days ago, in Montevideo, and would have qualified for the 2006 World Cup, the patron directors of the Federation and Dimayor had already released the guillotine blade for allowing meetings of the Acolfutpro in the concentration of the Selection.
(In other news: Gio Urshela got the worst of it in a sensational catch)
Next Thursday, Reinaldo Rueda returns to the scene, of that nightmare, of that decision in a minute thinking about what they will say. That history does not repeat itself.
Meluk tells him …
Gabriel Meluk
Sports Editor
@MelukLeCuenta
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