24 Oct 2021 – 2:00 a. m.
More than deserved, it is the first great option that Deportivo Pereira has, in its history of 77 years, to dispute a title, a special prize: the Colombia Cup in its final, which will play against Atlético Nacional.
That is what this column is about, the intention of which is to ponder and, incidentally, thank the presence of the matecaña. Among his most important achievements is having recovered a hobby, which returned with enthusiasm and songs, to Hernán Ramírez Villegas to accompany him, encourage him and, of course, rejoice with his great campaign.
This team is made up of a mixture of veterans, at least six, who pass the 33-year-old barrier, and another group of young people who achieved a synchronized set, both in play and in delivery and disposition, to compare with any rival, without interest scrolls, conformation, greater number of figures, etc.
Those details brighten an achievement, after starting to endure that nightmare that means the risk of relegation, marinated with that implausible average formula, an exercise copied from Argentine football that basically only seeks to protect the bad or well-called big teams. That immunity must be eradicated from our football so that everyone has equal opportunities. No matter how powerful or great a team is, it must submit to the relegation sentence, if it plays badly or its results and defeats warrant it.
Carlos Ramírez, 33 years old; Danny Cano, 35; Diego Peralta, 36; Gilberto García, 34; J. Vasquez, 34; Henry Rojas, 34, and Arizala, 35. All this nucleus of veterans, with many games on top, push and sustain this present and feed the illusion of contesting with all physical and mental strength the title of the favorite of this final, which is against Atlético National.
It is likely, at this time, that Pereira is a team that arouses enormous sympathy within football fans themselves. It is to relive in something that feeling that years ago surrounded López Fretes’ kindergarten or to return in the memory of those good players who defended the colors of Pereira: Jairo Arboleda, Mincho Cardona, Chiqui Aguirre, Víctor Campaz, Diego Umaña, or the Paraguayans always present in old Libaré: Arsenio Valdez, Benicio Ferreira, Luis Doldán, Claudio Lezcano, Ángel Chávez, Isaías Bobadilla, Casimiro Ávalos and many others.
Pereira deserves with his people not only to be in the main league, but to enjoy this present and fight for a Copa Colombia, even if logic tips the balance and favoritism in favor of Nacional. It is very significant that the great matecaña is getting closer to a final on his own merit. And the winner will be the one who overcomes the opponent with goals, rather than with well-played football. Courage, Pereira, who managed to awaken the dormant passion, for obvious reasons, in the hearts of his fans.
.
