The worst is over and the good thing is that it wasn’t that bad either: Millonarios lost 1-2 against Fluminense in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores qualifiers. At the height of Bogotá, yes. But with ten men for almost the entire game and an admirable ability to risk… almost reckless.
He has a one-goal disadvantage and that is more positive than many expected, because even the blue fans themselves feared a win that would leave everything sentenced and end up relegating the second leg, this Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro (7:30 p.m. Colombian) to a mere regulatory requirement.
But it is soccer. The rival has more payroll, it is true; he has more experience, there is no doubt; he now has the public in his favor and the peace of mind of knowing that a draw is enough to advance without needing to overreact. But precisely that confidence is what must be attacked this Tuesday, that comfort of having won at 2,600 meters of altitude (don’t believe it, for Brazilians that has the flavor of a feat) can play against and that error would have to be bet.
After all, what else is going to lose Millionaires in Rio de Janeiro? Nothing! It already fell in his house, as was expected in almost all bookmakers, and that has no reverse. If he comes out with the knife between his teeth, one of two things can happen: that he eats three goals, which would add to the statistics and not much more, or that he can give a bump like the one that, at times, he wanted to look for in Bogota. The good thing is that coach Alberto Gamero neither knows nor wants to go out and hide and that already guarantees that something can happen to him. What to risk? Take note:
1. Attack from the goalkeeper
If the Gamero Millionaires know how to do something, it is to show their faces with the same courage in Montería as in Rio de Janeiro. It won’t be a big deal but not playing at the Maracanã but at the Vasco da Gama stadium subtracts stage fright. Then you have to appeal to Montero’s long serve; to the offensive projections of Vargas and/or Llinás, either in the aerial game or with one of the two letting go when there is an opportunity; to the overflow of Ruiz with the support of Macalister Silva; to Vega’s precision to get the team out; Herazo ‘killing himself’ between the central defenders to cause an error. If it’s the last Copa Libertadores game, let it be the way blue likes it: attacking.
2. Let the opponent run after the ball
A strategy that was thought of but was never executed at the height of Bogotá, due to the not insignificant detail of having to play with ten for 72 minutes, is to make the veterans but for that very reason intelligent Brazilians run after the ball: Ruiz He did a couple of mischief in the first leg that he could repeat this time (among those a rather sought-after penalty); Román, Bertel, Vásquez and Vega are old enough to be persecuted instead of being persecuted; Jader Valencia is always a shock because he enters to finish off, when the rival seems exhausted… he is in the blue script, he has to find a way to express it on the field.
3. That the rival goalkeeper has no respite!
It is most likely that Fluminense will come out to sentence the series with an early goal that will drive the rival to despair, so you have to plan well those first 15 or 20 minutes. But then you have to look for a goal that causes a wound in their confidence and forces them to open up and then Fabio becomes the target of the bullseye: that they aim at him from medium distance Vega, Román, Ruiz, Silva, Vargas, Vásquez … Pereira even scores Chilean goals! Let everyone try without pity that in the end in Brazil almost nobody knows them. If they’re going to remember them, let it be for one of those ‘pepazo’ that those over there know how to do.
