With sarcasm and strong words, the former player compared the blues with the level of B and the bad moment of Barcelona at the level of Europe.
Everyone knows that Martín Arzuaga, despite having gone through several clubs in the FPC, has his heart committed to Junior and he is very critical of the ‘Shark’ rivals. In this opportunity, being stronger than his companions, He pointed out Millionaires and Alberto Gamero.
(Also read: Ecuadorians, surprised despite a loose tie: “The best thing about Millionaires was their fans”)
After the debut of the ‘ambassadors’ in the Copa Libertadores 2023, drawing goalless with Universidad Católica de Ecuador in Quito, the former player took up the criticism of the past against the blues. But he also belittled the team from the neighboring country, ignoring many things and only taking into account their concept.
Criticism of Martín Arzuaga for the debut of Millionaires in Copa Libertadores 2023:
In the middle of the ‘F Show’ program on ESPN Colombia, when they questioned the members about whether Millonarios or Medellín had doubts about their move to the third preliminary phase of Libertadores, Arzuaga was the only one who spoke about Gamero’s team and explained it: “ … ‘Lagunas’ left Millonarios, due to that lack of intensity in his game, on the mark. I saw that Millonarios and I have seen more intense matches in the first B of the local tournament, than the Millonarios match against Católica”.
Although the second leg remains in Bogotá, so that Gamero and his players can get into the next instance, For the former player, that is not consolation and there is already a negative history in the FPC:
“What worries me the most is that you always say: Let’s hope he gets home. It has happened to Junior, with Unión de Santa Fe, it has happened to Nacional… lately, as of 2016, we are not favorites… We only have 3 titles; the one from Once Caldas and the 2 from Nacional. But we were competitive, I’m not conformist, but with América we reached the finals, the same thing happened to Junior in the quarterfinals…”.
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But Martín took the issue further and said that many talk about the Millionaires’ game, but it has not complied outside the country and even questioned what the players did on the field in matters of will: “The team, today ‘flag’ of the best game, of the beautiful, showy, forceful game; He is Millionaires… But I am more concerned about what he stops doing, the lack of commitment…”.
But Arzuaga’s level of criticism was very strong and he not only pointed to Millonarios for the tiealso downgraded to Universidad Católica de Quito:
“In the game, you have to overcome a team like that. You study the details in 15 minutes and in 15 minutes you had to impose yourself, with the players that Millionaires have today. Against a team that seems to be, with the respect they deserve, from a lower category than the one played by Millonarios… How many years of history does Católica have? From the 70 here is that the Catholic has come into existence. It has had ups and downs, it has gone down (to the second division) about 70 times… Let’s not look at the investment, at the structure. Millionaires, supposedly, a team that has no rival in Colombia, that is what they have said and have sold. They don’t have anyone to play like him.”
After this strong string of accusations, ‘el Torito’ de Becerril released the comparison with Barcelona and its failures in international competitions: “Millionaires is like what we are talking about Barcelona, a team that only establishes itself in its league and not in international tournaments.” Although the other members of the program disputed and corrected him, Arzuaga continued the same when talking about the Ecuadorians.
At this point, the player who went through the Colombian team said that something similar was happening with other FPC clubs. But later he charged against the blues again, this time with the name of Alberto Gamero in the crosshairs for his statements.
(Also read: U. Católica vs. Millonarios left a lukewarm balance: very few saves and passes)
“I love Gamero, I love him, because he is a good human being and a good coach. But he has these things, I don’t know if they are his strategies, to give the players peace of mind and he ends up ‘taking a toll on him’. We saw it in the previous tournament. That the pitch, I don’t know what, that we needed a central defender, that we needed Ruiz. And then there were no champions left, ‘the best team in the world’…”
Of course, when they reminded Martín Arzuaga that Millionaires did win a title and he was beating Junior, he downplayed that definition: “They won it from my Junior, an unknown Junior.” But it all served to criticize David Macalister Silva, to end his strong analysis against the capital: “At times, I thought that Macalister was not playing.”
