Alberto Gamero lived his happiest hour as a Millionaires coach with great emotion. Once Larry Vásquez deceived Kevin Mier, Atlético Nacional goalkeeper, and hung the 16th star on the albiazul shield, he sat down on the bench to cry, accompanied by his faithful squire, Orlando Rojas.
The samarium, sitting in his office, the north bank of El Campín, seemed to be in a world apart, while 35,000 people exploded with joy around him. Rojas, very far from the strong image he had as a player (a central defender who hit very hard, with a black mane that he no longer retains), tried to console him. “We did it, we did it,” he told her as he hugged him.
No one deserved it more than him. Sometimes soccer is Fair. Thanks to life for seeing this special moment. 💙🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/x88cOzYn1W
— Valentina Rincón⚽️ (@Valen_Rincon11) June 25, 2023
Gamero finally achieved what he wanted: to win the League with Millonarios, and incidentally became the second coach to win the title with three different teams (Boyacá Chicó, Tolima and now Millos) and, furthermore, he did it as player and coach. The other is a legend, the doctor Gabriel Ochoa Uribe.
When he snapped back to reality, Gamero ran out into the dressing room. He had to keep an appointment. “He went to look for the mother, the Miraculous Virgin. He is devoted to her. Today (Saturday), miraculously, a one meter virgin arrived at her office that she searched for a long time and someone sent it to her ”, his wife, Cristina Góngora, told Win Sports. “Alberto has done nothing but trust him, her and her work and everything worked out for us,” she added.
To divine help, Gamero added a lot of accumulated work. With the patience of the managers, Tito earned their trust and completed his sixth League in charge of Millonarios. After an elimination in his first tournament, the one at the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, he had already been flirting with the star.
He was very close two years ago, when, in an empty El Campín stadium, he arrived with a tie from Ibagué and was unable to revalidate it. Tolima was the champion. And then he was three times in home runs. There were very hard moments and, even, last year, in a deep hole in the team, he was about to resign.
The prize for his insistence was winning a final that all the blue fans wanted to win. In front was Nacional, one of the two great historical rivals, with whom there was an outstanding debt since 1989.
“These guys realized how great they are. I will work to achieve this, they will think about it and today was very nice. They will want to repeat this achievement. We were looking for it, it is a project that has been started and it is courageous. Here what is done is good. I feel happy arriving at the headquarters, the players arrive early to improve, to those complementary jobs. They play the way I want and that makes me happy, I’m glad that they come out to enjoy themselves”, explained Gamero at the post-game press conference.
Changes for the better
Gamero had to change, in part, the way Millonarios played to finally lift the champion’s trophy and hang the medal around his neck. He also did it forced by the circumstances and the plans of a club that also has among its objectives to sell players. Before beginning this semester, Carlos Andrés Gómez was sold to Real Salt Lake, and Daniel Ruiz went on loan to Santos in Brazil.
The first thing that Gamero had to do was find a different way of playing, with the return of players like Daniel Giraldo and Fernando Uribe, and with the arrival of the League’s top scorer from last semester, Leonardo Castro. That forced Millos to touch the ball less and be more direct. And that began to show: fewer passes, fewer shots, but more effectiveness.
There is no greater recognition for a DT than to see the gratitude, affection and respect of his leaders in victory 🏆Ⓜ️…
THANK YOU ALBERTO MIGUEL GAMERO MORILLO! 💙🤍💙🌟1️⃣6️⃣ pic.twitter.com/Bew6IrXUUi
— The Ambassador Page 🌟 (@LPEmbajadora) June 25, 2023
The other issue that made the entire coaching staff headed by Gamero think is that, apart from the League, there was the commitment to the Copa Libertadores, initially, and then to the Sudamericana, to which it fell after being left out of the previous phases .
Gamero had worked with teams of between 27 and 29 players, in which he was promoting some new faces.
This semester, 35 players set foot on a professional field with the albiazul shield on their chests, including four absolute rookies (Luis Andrés Paredes, Beckham Castro, Jhoan Hernández and Kevin Cortés) and three others who were practically also rookies, since they barely had a handful of minutes from 2022.
One of them, Óscar Cortés, became the new jewel in the crown, he shone in the South American U-20 and then in the World Cup, he is already in the senior team and now he is in the front row to go abroad: it is said that He is ready to go to Lens, in France, although the blue managers do not confirm it.
The result of all this was a less showy but equally solid team, which also added a dose of character. “I told them that we made 55 points in six months, it is not easy. We knew we were doing good things. This team was trying to play well. We said that if soccer was fair and Colombia held tournaments like other places, we would have been champions long ago. We had to hit home runs,” Gamero said.
The final against Nacional was very complicated. The greens played to defend themselves in the second leg, a style of play well removed from their history, but which is still valid. And that’s how they complicated Millonarios in the first half: they went ahead to the dressing room with total effectiveness: they came only once and it was a goal. In the second, Millos managed to get the tie and was able to continue long.
“I, at least, told them that the world was not going to end, no matter what, so we wouldn’t have won. I’m not the best today, but I wasn’t going to be the worst either because of the defeat”, assured the samarium.
Gamero even arrived calmly at the decision-making stage from the penalty spot, without remembering, at that time, that his first two league titles, with Boyacá Chicó in 2008 and with Tolima 10 years later, were achieved this way.
“I remembered later. I asked Rojas if we had been champions in Medellín on penalties, with (Álvaro) Montero. We have confidence and this team earns money every day. They hit it hard. We were sure of having two good goalkeepers. If (Juan) Moreno had covered, phenomenal. We had players with confidence to collect ”, he explained.
There is no time for celebrations. Millonarios has another appointment with its history, that of the Copa Sudamericana. This Monday he travels to Argentina to face Defense and Justice on Thursday. “Today we are champions, on Monday we have to travel, another game. They know that the celebration is short, we have another step. We are going for more victories, to give satisfaction to the fans ”, he concluded.
Tears came from her soul. It was a total letdown. Gamero has already fulfilled his objective in the League. But he wants to continue. There is an international tournament ahead and also, a new League that starts in a couple of weeks. Samarium trusts in his work and in his divine help.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc
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