Olimpia has no opponent in Honduran soccer after defeating Génesis 1-2 at the Carlos Miranda stadium on the last day of the Apertura 2023 tournament of the Honduran National League.
The King of Cups added 48 points, becoming the super leader, but now they will have to wait for a rival in the semifinal round, where they were already installed days ago. Your rival could be Olancho, Génesis or Real Sociedad.
After the final whistle of the match, Olimpia coach, Pedro Troglio, spoke about the “merengue” conquest and also had minutes to mention the refereeing of Iván Barton, central referee of Mexico-Honduras at the Azteca stadium. What did he say about the undefeated white?
– PRESS CONFERENCE –
How do you analyze this match?
Happy for the 48 points, happy for the team’s moment. We tried to get as many players as possible to play, we had not seen the National Team’s fatigue well: the emotional issue after making an enormous sacrifice, so we counted on those who had not played at all. We leave Jorge Álvarez. We put Edwin on, but it was obvious that he was tired after playing 140 minutes. In fact, we didn’t want to take risks with those who had three yellow cards. Unfortunately we were sent off, we must be intelligent, because we lose an important player for what is to come and in the second half we sinned with the fear of expulsions, of playing carefully.
Motagua will play the repechage, what do you think?
This championship is not easy, it is difficult. I continue to maintain the same thing, that this is a great tournament, it is a great league, I continue to defend it to the death. Look with Mexico at what happened. Six, seven players from the National League played, barbarians played and the figures were two or three players from Olimpia. It is a very good league, what happens is that when Mexico happens, we realize that you have good players. But the league, when you qualified for the world championships, what did it do to improve? Nothing.
Only now is he improving with the courts, you never improved the courts, you never improved the training ones. As I always say, there is confusion, if you want to compare yourself with the Premier League or Spain, of course you are far away, boy. You have to compare yourself with the Central American League, and you are the best League in Central America, by far. You have the best team in Central America, still today, for more than a year and a half it is the best team, so, we have a good league, we must improve the Honduran soccer fields. I am happy that these things happen and this shows that what Olimpia has achieved has not been easy at all.
What is your opinion of what Honduras happened against Mexico at the Azteca?
I don’t want to be harsh with that, because if they want to ruin you, they can ruin you in a corner, they charge you a shirt pull, of which there are thousands, and if you go to the VAR, it’s a penalty. Give him the one about Maldonado who grabbed his shirt. You stop the game, go to the VAR and charge a penalty or whatever you want to charge. What the referee did have a hard time doing was settling the people who were angry because they were running out of time, they gave up nine.
The six in the first half seemed a bit exaggerated to me, if you wanted nine in the second half nothing would happen, maybe there was no need to play two more. And you have the misfortune that on the last play the ball went in, because if it went out nothing would happen, but it is possible that they would give you one more minute. But you have to agree, there is still one more chance and be satisfied with the game. When we face Mexicans and Americans, it is not easy, because we play against all those things, it seems to me that the National Team did well.
Very close to becoming undefeated champion
The goal is to be champion, but if you tell me today “they are going to lose a game, but they will be champions,” I tell you that I will sign it today. I want to be champion. Be careful, the numbers are beautiful. They told me that we beat the goals and the wins. That one doesn’t say it internally is fantastic. Now, if I have to become champion and I have to lose, I prefer it that way, but first we must get through the semifinals. If you have an Olancho, Marathon is not easy. Today we played with substitutes against Génesis, but we didn’t win 5-0. Being champions is the important thing.
2023-11-26 00:24:00
#minutes #exaggerated
