For Maria Catalina Usme Pineda, the historic scorer of the National Team (52 goals), her life does not go through what but how. That? 52 goals dressed in yellow and 31 for another record in Women’s Libertadores Cup they say little about what the path she chose and championed has been, even as she had to waitress, oversee inventories, and train, stealing minutes off the clock to make her way through the Women’s World Cup 2023.
One day after the 1-0 victory against Jamaica with a great goal that sent Colombia to the quarterfinals for the first time in the history of a senior women’s World Cup, Usme, 33, looks towards that In the past, towards the two cruciate ligament injuries that threatened her career, and she finds a meaning for everything: congratulates the players by hugging them and ‘giving them spikes’ or strengthens them with double doses at the time of defeats. She cares more about them than her own virtue to resolve a very tough game for Colombia.
(Colombian National Team: millionaire prize for its best participation in the Women’s World Cup)
(Linda Caicedo speaks to Colombia: ‘I know we can reach the World Cup final’)
The best
The Fifa he chose her as the player of the match. She was the most valuable because of her final goal. That’s why the TV cameras separate her from the rest of her and point at her. Catalina talks about her and her eyes water up. Catalina, the greatest of the Colombian National Team, cried in a show of emotion deserved for the present and for the past.
“So many things go through my head that I can’t describe what I’m feeling. They are years of loving this, years of work, of fighting, of everything. From falls, getting back up, and getting a step to such an important instance is incredible. And God is incredible and has been a faithful believer that this team can handle more, “he declared before repeating:” I can’t describe what I’m feeling.
Minutes later, in the mixed zone, that corridor through which the players pass in front of the press that shoots bursts of questions at them as they pass, Usme, the paisa born in Black riverthe crash ofthe America of Cali, the one who talks tough, can’t stop remembering the path that brought her here: “Now it’s more complicated: when it was our turn we didn’t see anyone, we didn’t have a damn, we didn’t know anything or anyone, but the pressure today It has changed”, he affirms now without tears.
“So we are going to continue dreaming big to continue achieving our goals.”
Today, she is the mirror in which thousands of young players look at themselves. How much time is left? We are going to think that it is not little, although she planned it. Today, now more than ever, you have to trust. Did she think she would retire herself? May she never do it!
“This team has incredible energy, a clear goal is to play seven finals: we already have four. Enjoy because we are making history, but this cannot be the ceiling of this team, it has to be the end of the world. So let’s calm down a bit, think again with a cool head and wait for England because we want to win that game too, we know we have what it takes, that we have a way of competing with any team in the world. So we are going to continue dreaming big to continue achieving goals, ”he said.
Is this goal the most important of your sports career? What does it mean?
“I just want to give the best of myself to the team, my work, my sacrifice; wherever they need me, wherever they want me to play, I always want to contribute. Today was the goal. Thank God, it happened in an important game for me, because I have also dreamed it, I have worked on it, I have visualized it, I have prepared myself to have that coldness in the most important moments and it is good that today I was able to respond with what The best I know is to score goals. It’s good that I was able to answer, because I also have the same dream as them: to play the final”.
What did you think when you saw the ball thrown by Ana María Guzmán coming?
“The goal was at the right time: I had to appeal to coldness by having the goal in front of me. But I thought from before the game, all day, to do the best for the team. The goal is given to me and I was able to hole out the one I had left. I love that pressure: I saw that the ball was coming and that it was in front of me. I thought about all the years we’ve been here.”
Let’s go back to the center of Ana María…
“It’s half a goal. Can’t you see that he put it on my foot! It is also very easy to control a ball like that. A personality like hers (Ana María Guzmán) is the basis for playing anything. She couldn’t be filled with pressure, what for? She already had enough with making her debut in the round of 16 of the World Cup, but the fact is that the young people who are here have an incredible personality and that is what you have to have to play in a World Cup. Linda, Ana Maria; Manuela (Vanegas), who is young, those little girls have a crazy personality, and what else do you need for a game like this. The only thing I said to Ana María was: ‘Trust, it’s a game, trust.’ She was extraordinary”.
The match, very tough, turned out to be a game of chess…
“Yes, this is a very special moment for everyone. The goal came because we built it well, because we were smart to know how to break a defense that had been very solid, but we knew it was a completely different game. It was to cover their virtues and try to violate them when we had the opportunity. One of my virtues is how cold I am there, to define, and I knew that at any moment I would have the opportunity ”.
Colombia was a patient and serious team…
“This is a World Cup. You have to learn to manage the moments of the game. They are 90-minute games, and you don’t know if you’re going to go into extra time and that’s why you have to manage those rhythms of the game and read the moments. When we were already 1-0 down, we knew it was important to control, because they were going to come with everything: all their substitutions were offensive and that’s why we knew that they were going to leave us space to attack them. Those of us who had the obligation to put the line back together (defensive task in the midfield) knew that we had to leave two players in front (for the counterattack) and in that we were quite applied, like the whole team ”.
Fifa gave the trophy to the figure of the game…
“The figure was the team. In the defensive phase we were applied, orderly, rigorous with the strengths they had, with everything we knew we had to control. In the offensive phase we also appeal to our virtues, to what has made us strong: we do not give up what we have been, and the results are there”.
Now the super favorite England is coming…
“Let’s go from you to you. We are not going to speculate. We came to play seven finals and we have the certainty of the work, we can build it and achieve what we want. We are going to look at England squarely”.
(Shakira and Gerard Piqué reconcile: they give news of peace after their stormy separation)
Jenny Gamez
Special envoy EL TIEMPO AND FUTBOLRED
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