América de Cali sentenced a disastrous semester, in which it accumulated three eliminations in a row in the Liga –in which they were left out of the top eight–, in the Copa Sudamericana, and in the Copa Colombia –in which they could not overcome the round of 16 against Unión Magdalena–. Neither the departure of DT Juan Carlos Osorio nor the arrival of Alexandre Guimarães were solutions.
The club’s owner, Tulio Gómez, who receives a lot of criticism from fans for being the head of last year’s failed project, accepted responsibility. “Total failure… Tulio and Osorio failed. Guimarães has no responsibility in this first semester”, he told EL TIEMPO.
missed semester
This total failure, as Tulio calls it, is the result of a project that has not been able to find stability. It started in June of last year, when the club decided to hire Osorio, with the idea that with him the team would fight for the League and even advance in the Copa Sudamericana. But that didn’t happen; the scarlet club, which had already left several of its figures, was left out of everything.
However, for this 2022 Osorio remained in office, with great challenges, and he was unable to bring any of them afloat. Again, he had no tools. The team was not reinforced well. And the results did not accompany him. First, he was left out of the South American, losing the series with Medellín. And when the table in the League was hanging, Osorio finally left.
In recent statements to the ESPN channel, Osorio gave his point of view on the factor that, he considers, had a negative impact on his project. “That the club left 7 players in 10 months is devastating: Yesus Cabrera, Rafael Carrascal; then Duván Vergara, Santiago Moreno, (Kevin) Andrade, (Pablo) Ortiz, (Emerson) Batalla…, it was difficult to compete,” he said.
So the club opted for an old acquaintance, Guimarães, who made him champion in 2019. But Guimarães, on the one hand, did not have enough time to implement his idea and, to make matters worse, he did not have the tools to put up a fight. That, added to the low level of many footballers. Specific errors, lack of goals, injuries… The team was eliminated two dates from the end.
No League, no Cup…
The Copa Colombia was the lifeline, but the team lost the first leg at home, 1-3, against Unión Magdalena, and in the second leg, in a match that began on Wednesday night and ended on Thursday when it was suspended for foul of electric fluid, lost again, 2-1. Thus the second elimination was consummated.
America’s payroll turned out to be very fragile. The players who arrived this semester were John García, Eber Moreno, Esney-der Mena, Didier Pino, Brayan Vera, Juan Portilla, Iago Falque, Daniel Mosquera and Alejandro Quintana. Of all of them, the only one that stood out was Portilla. And among the experienced, Adrián Ramos, Joel Graterol, Diego Novoa (when it was his turn) and Carlos Sierra were saved.
Now the scarlet team, which cannot sign in the middle of the year due to a Fifa sanction, due to the case of the player Rafael Carrascal, thinks of a second semester that will be the same or more difficult.
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