The classics or derbies are usually the most anticipated matches by fans of the year or semester. Duels in which the two historical rivals of a city, department, region or country meet to measure their soccer level and show who is on the field.
This Sunday one of those games is played, the Valle del Cauca classic between Deportivo Cali and América de Cali, where the sugar producers hope to return to victory in the debut of their new coaching staff and the scarlet team will seek the same goal to re-enter the group of the eight.
For this edition, being the 298 for the league and the 333 for all competitions, the game will have a different touch, and that is that it will have two World Cup coaches; and perhaps, the two most important of the Costa Rican National Team in its entire history. Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto Afanador for Cali and Costa Rican nationalized Brazilian Alexandre Henrique Borges Guimaraes, who by the way, have had a rivalry due to their past in the Costa Rican team.
It all started in 2005, when Pinto was dismissed from his activities as coach of Costa Rica, in the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and was replaced by Guimaraes, who returned after the World Cup in Korea and Japan 2002. In the end he was able to classify them back to that orbital rendezvous.
Later in 2006, in an interview, the Santander coach was questioned about the process of his successor at the head of the national team, where he strongly criticized him: “the truth is that (Guimaraes) does not know tactics, he has no knowledge of the subject. That is a reality”.
Some time later, Guimaraes replied that: “the only thing I am going to say about that is that my rank as a two-time World Cup coach does not allow me to enter into that type of discussion about whether I know or I do not know. I am at a higher level”.
The years passed, they met in the second half of 2019, with Pinto defending the colors of Millonarios and Guimaraes in his first step with America, but the issue did not touch much depth at that time.
But prior to this Valle del Cauca classic, in the media attention at América de Cali, the coach was asked about this difference with his rival next Sunday, to which he replied that:
“It is things of yours that for the morbidity of the party you want to take out. There is absolutely none of that. On Sunday there are going to be two World Cup coaches directing here in Colombia and that is great”.
The Valle del Cauca classic will be played this Sunday at 5:35 in the afternoon at the Cali stadium in Palmaseca behind closed doors.
Juan Andres Arias Arias
Correspondent Futbolred
Cali
And Twitter: @AriasJuan_15
