Colombia won the bronze medal in the men’s soccer tournament of the Bolivarian Games. The national team defeated the Dominican Republic 5-1 and was third in the championship after two losses and one victory.
Rafael Santos Mercado scored two of Colombia’s five goals, Andrés Alfonso, Óscar Perea and Hilder Arboleda scored the other three. Nicolás Cruz García marked the discount for the Dominicans who suffered three defeats.
Colombia had lost to Bolivia and Paraguay that beat Bolivia in the definition for gold 2-1.
Balance of Colombia in the Bolivarians
The balance of Jorge Serna’s team is negative in terms of results, but good in terms of experience and the path that U17 players have already started with a call, the selection environment and participation in an international tournament.
“It wasn’t what we wanted. but we contribute with a medal that seems small, but we are going to make it count. The Games left us with a lot of learning for all of us, for the boys for the coaching staff and finally they are experiences that they are starting to live”, said the coach.
The coach will make a study of what happened on the field, “we have to evaluate everything we did wrong as a coaching staff, many boys also made mistakes because it was their first time in the National Team. Make an analysis with the Federation and be attentive to the path that must be followed “.
However, for Serna not everything was negative, “we are in a training process, we have seen the whole country to look for players. We are missing some regions to visit and we are going to do it. Due to the rush of the tournament we couldn’t do it, but those who are here showed interesting things. In the competition it was difficult for them, there are aspects to evaluate, but we must get the best out of it to improve as well”.
Lastly, he spoke of the importance of these tournaments, “we are going to correct things in a very calm manner. In this category, the only thing that adds up is the qualitative development of the player, how he grows as a person and in interpretation of the game.. You can win or lose, but they have integral development as human beings”.
