Colombia National Team: Héctor Cárdenas, more of the same… (Meluk tells him)

First idea: “The worrying thing is that, without greater creativity or mobility, the coach was more concerned with the boys putting together the tactical figure (…) A team tied up, flat, without variants and without talent or scorers.”

Second idea: “How badly this National Team plays. It's chewing gum without candy. It is a team without surprise, very stagnant.”

(You may be interested: Millonarios was a machine: he beat Medellín 5-0 in his debut in the League)

Third idea: “This Colombian National Team is a flat team, which has nothing left over and lacks football. He did the minimum that he should do.”

Fourth idea: “(…) This flat team, without much genius, with individual sparks, willful and with little technical direction, has the same flat game that caused neither cold nor heat in the South American. There is no need to make dramas about having lost (…), but the will and the sparks of the boys lacked technique. That sheath!”.

All those quotes, written by me, do not refer to the U-23 National Team which was crushed 3-0 by Ecuador in the opening of the Pre-Olympic, last Saturday, although they all fit its poor shoe.

Be careful: I wrote the first quote about the U-17 National Team, in April 2019. The second was when commenting on the U-20 Tournament Maurice Revello, in June 2022 (the formerly called Hopes of Toulon). I wrote the third at the end of the South American Youth, in February 2023. And the fourth was written after the participation of the same U-20 in the World Cup. All these teams have a common denominator: the technician Hector Cardenas. Different years, different teams, different tournaments and different players… Today is not the same, but it is the same!

Cárdenas, who became known for directing Deportivo Cali in three stages (2012, 2014 and 2017), arrived on the circuit of the minor teams in 2018 as the Valle del Cauca quota in the technical directions of Colombia. He made his debut in the U-17 and set a record: it is the only team that has been eliminated by losing all the games in a South American. Zero eggs, zero chicks. Quite a milestone!

(Also read: Héctor Cárdenas puts up his chest after Colombia's defeat: 'We are going to overcome')

The football federation politically distributes the minor league coaches by region, as happens in the management teams: Juan Fernado Mejía, member of the executive committee, is former president of Deportivo Cali, as was Óscar Astudillo, also former president of the Federation and today advisor and delegate of Conmebol.

Well, last Saturday this Cárdenas U-23 team was crushed despite having a lot of players to avoid being beaten by Ecuador. It was played (sorry for the exaggeration!) as the U-17 and U-20 of Cárdenas himself.

Suffering an expulsion is no excuse: it is part of the game, like conceding a goal. That is overcome. That's what technicians are for. Another gray team, very flat, without variants or surprise, at a single speed of useless possession, without mobility and that only puts together a tactical figure with which it does not cover up the gross defensive failures. Once again a Cárdenas Selection, waiting for an individual imbalance. Today all that remains is to pray for a miracle. And Brazil is coming…

Meluk tells him

GABRIEL MELUK
SPORTS Editor
@MelukLeCuenta

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