You could see it coming. Junior paid dearly for his conformism, his disorder and his ultra-defensive strategy to try to seal a valuable victory against Bucaramanga, on Monday night at the Alfonso López stadium, in the capital of Santander.
The rojiblanco team, which had taken the lead with a good goal from Luis ‘Cariaco’ González in the opening period, forgot about the opposing goal practically throughout the second half, defended themselves to the clutch in the last 15 minutes and in the last sigh Carlos Henao, frequent executioner of the ‘Sharks’, took a bombshell that exploded in the nets of Sebastián Viera’s goal and tied the game 1-1.
A great goal that collapsed the foolish mountaineering with which Junior faced the agony of the game and that frustrated the possibility of achieving the fourth consecutive win and a great booty of points to better place himself in the standings.
Instead of going out in search of more goals against one of the worst defenders of the tournament, the rojiblancos gave up the attack and dedicated themselves to making a bland touch and burning time when there were still many minutes left.
Junior, who experimented and premiered Gabriel Fuentes in the left-wing role in the absence of Fabián Sambueza, was somewhat unsettled at first. The samarium seemed out of place, although with the passing of the minutes it fit in better.
‘El Tiburon’ controlled the game, despite his constant inaccuracies in the midst of the movement of the ball. Several times unforced errors were made in the delivery, but in defense there were no great scares, beyond the perseverance of Argentine Alejandro Quintana, who with his great size protected the ball well and tried to promote plays.
However, Hómer Martínez, with great determination and firmness, managed to disarm the claims of the tall and bearded gaucho attacker.
Sherman Cárdenas and Álvaro Meléndez also insisted on looking for Sebastián Viera’s goal and on a couple of occasions they disturbed with two crossed and flush shots that brought danger, especially the one kicked by the Cartagena attacker.
Junior, who had not attacked much, opened the scoring in a moment of inspiration from ‘Cariaco’, who reappeared after overcoming his injury. The Venezuelan received a pivoting from Juan Sebastián Herrera and defined with a shot down and located to the side.
Junior let go more and handled the ball relaxed. However, there was no determined search for the opposing goal.
At the beginning of the second half, Wálmer Pacheco could have scored the 2-0, but Chaverra shortened him quickly, and he could not define. It was that option and that’s it. Junior never again threatened the host cabin with real danger.
Much less after the replacement of ‘Cariaco’.
Neither the coaching staff nor the players knew how to lower the blind on the game. All the changes and movements on the court were in a protective function. Defending yourself is not bad, the bad thing is doing it without criteria, without an escape plan, with a backlash.
Junior ended up uncoordinated, with the creed in his mouth and bursting the ball anywhere. On the other hand, Bucaramanga, in view of the little work that was in the Chaverra arc, was emboldened and advanced with great risk. Even their defenses ended up in the rival field, that’s why Henao appeared in the last second catching a rebound and releasing that whiplash of punishment to a rojiblanco team that ended badly and too defensive.
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