Talleres is having a hard time with this Jenga game. The skill game that president Andrés Fassi usually proposes to the current coach has become a complex challenge for Javier Gandolfi.
‘Cobija’ had two key pieces removed from the structure he built in the first half of the year – the Colombian Diego Valoyes and the Uruguayan Michael Santos – when Albiazul achieved a historic runner-up finish in the Professional League Tournament and consolidated itself in the most expectant positions in the Annual Table that classifies the Conmebol Cups.
The tower has not fallen, but it does not exhibit the firmness of other times either. For the moment, the blocks are put in and taken out, stacked as best as possible, to see if they fit together. The game is still on. The premise is that the balance is not broken and that the chance of winning remains.
Is there equipment?
Training no longer comes from memory, as it did not long ago. In fact, Guido Herrera, Gastón Benavídez, Ulises Ortegoza and Ramón Sosa are the only players who started in all of the League Cup matches.
In five games, Gandolfi never repeated the lineup, used 24 different players (more than two complete teams) and even changed his favorite game system (4-2-3-1) to visit Argentinos Juniors with more defensive precautions.
Only two of his coaches, Herrera and Sosa, were not replaced and they completed the 450 or so minutes that Talleres has played in the contest.
MANTILLA. Of the twelve players who joined in the last free pass, the Colombian defender is the one who completed the most minutes on the field. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
In just 34 days of competition, the ‘T’ put a goalkeeper on the field (Herrera); seven defenders (Benavídez, Mantilla, Rodríguez, Portillo, Catalán, Suárez, Riveros); eight midfielders (García, Ortegoza, Depietri, Seoane, Sequeira, Villagra, Garro, Galarza) and eight forwards (Angulo, Sosa, Bustos, Barrera, Romero, Pozzo, Molina and Vallejo).
In five games, Gandolfi never repeated the lineup and used 24 different players, more than two full teams.
Seven other players signed the roster, although they did not add minutes: Morales, Martínez Lezcano, Buffarini, Palacios, Saavedra, Olmos and Juncos.
Is the base there?
The saves of captain Guido Herrera, increasingly exposed by the defensive weakness shown by the team, are the only certainty that the Albiazule fans can cling to today.
The disconcerting moment of the ‘T’ is also linked to the decline in the performance of other players who have been part of its backbone: Catalán, Villagra and Garro.
The three have worked conditioned by physical discomfort, just like Rodríguez and Bustos, who was substituted in the first four games and was not directly present last Thursday against ‘el Bicho’ in La Paternal.
Even the Paraguayan Sosa seems to have ‘lost his charm’, after an outstanding debut (with two goals included) against Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.
Other values that Gandolfi supported by giving them many minutes on the court, such as Depietri and Ortegoza, never managed to play a complete game.
The opposite was Sequeira, who came off the bench in all five games, although he never managed to provide deep solutions.
THE ONLY CERTAINTY. The goalkeeper and captain Guido Herrera maintains the high level that he exhibited in the last championship. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
Bets or reinforcements?
The image dominated the last minutes of the recent duel with Instituto: the Talleres audience haranguing a team full of surnames that are unfamiliar to them and whose qualities they still cannot decipher.
Of the 12 incorporations of the last transfer market, seven have already made their debut in society. The one who added the most time on the field was the Colombian Mantilla, starter in three games and substitute in the other two.
Also playing initially were Angulo (in the first match), Pozzo (in the last) and Riveros, the left back who arrived to look for solutions in a position already occupied by Martino, Fernández, Pasquini, Portillo and Suárez. Seoane, Molina and Vallejo added just a handful of minutes.
Of the 12 incorporations of the last transfer market, seven have already made their debut in society. The one who played the most was the Colombian Mantilla.
Five other players who arrived in the recent transfer market – Morales, Enriquez, Barticiotto, Ovando and Segovia – have not yet made their debut.
Valoyes and Santos remained in Talleres for five years and two and a half years, respectively, before being sold as a combo to FC Juárez of Mexico for US$10.7 million. The enthusiasm of the people at Talleres to take ‘the leap in quality’ today does not manage those times.
RODRIGO GARRO. The best footballer in the Professional League Tournament has not managed to revalidate that ‘plate’ in the current competition. /// PHOTO: CEDOC PROFILE
Do they give the accounts?
Last Thursday’s setback took Talleres out of the classification positions for the League Cup playoffs for the first time.
At the end of the 5th date, Albiazul was in the middle of the table in Zone A with 8 points, the product of two wins, one draw and two losses. With three points less than the leader Argentinos (10), and four more than the bottom Gimnasia (3).
The First Phase has nine games left, a long way to go. At its end, the eight teams that will fight for the second title of the year will be defined and also the prizes and punishments of the Annual Table.
The setback against Argentinos Juniors took Talleres out of the qualification positions for the League Cup playoffs for the first time.
In this grid, the sum of the two 2023 tournaments, Talleres remains second (in the classification zone for Copa Libertadores 2024), with seven points ahead of Argentinos and Boca, the first who today would enter the ‘cut’ of the who would play next year’s Copa Sudamericana.
MISSING VALOYES. While Talleres tries to get a foothold in the League Cup, the Colombian celebrates goals at FC Juárez in Mexico. /// PHOTO: FC JUÁREZ PRESS
Far from the Jardín neighborhood
Diego Valoyes and Michael Santos, authors of 17 of the 42 goals that Talleres scored in the 2023 Professional League Tournament, debuted with the FC Juárez shirt on September 1, in the 3-1 against Mazatlán, for the seventh date of the MX League.
The Colombian started, scored a goal, received a yellow card and was replaced in the second half. The Uruguayan played the last half hour of the game and was also reprimanded.
None of the players participated in the following match (1-1 vs. Necaxa), and only Valoyes – who was not taken into account for Colombia’s first two matches in the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, against Venezuela and Chile – was called up. to participate in the game that ‘Los Bravos’ of Ciudad Juárez animated last Friday against Atlas.
2023-09-24 03:44:00
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