As a busybody and a loudmouth (no euphemisms, for toad) I got into a discussion that was being aired by my colleagues from the ESPN program Balón separado.
According to the criteria of
Former soccer player Nicole Regnier and colleagues Julián Capera and Carlos Orduz very seriously and very nicely proposed that for the next match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in North America, against Bolivia at 4,150 meters above sea level From El Alto –a city that is why it is called that–, the Colombian National Team will play with another team, one with players accustomed to playing at high altitude.
That, more or less, would be to put together a national team with players from the teams of Tunja (2,782 meters), Bogotá (2,625 meters), Pasto (2,527 meters), Toluca (2,660 meters), Mexico City (2,240 meters) or Manizales (2,160 meters). Oh well…!
At the altitude of La Paz (3,640 meters), Colombia has done well without “bringing a high-altitude team.”
Results in Bolivia
Bolivia vs. Colombia in 2003.
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In seven games since the round-robin system was introduced, they won two, drew four and lost only one. And that loss was not due to a lack of oxygen: it was due to a lack of strategy, tactics and football: 4-0, in the qualifiers for Germany 2006, when the coach Francisco Maturana orHe ordered the team to play on the attack, with the forwards wide open, the defence well forward… In short, it was reckless. Otherwise, six games were played to get the result without having to field a team invented to supposedly play at altitude.
There, rather than having oxygen tanks and cockroaches in the head, one must have prudence, intelligence and common sense. If it were not for football, tactics, strategy, a good team (which there is), good players (which there are) and common sense, then Bolivia would be the power in the area and Millonarios, with its high-quality team, would not have lost to Bolívar in La Paz last April in the Libertadores, which was a shame.
AMDEP6632. BARRANQUILLA (COLOMBIA), 09/10/2024.- Colombia’s James Rodríguez celebrates a goal this Tuesday, in a South American qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup between Colombia and Argentina at the Metropolitano stadium in Barranquilla (Colombia). EFE/ Ricardo Maldonado Rozo
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To form a top-class team is to improvise a formation with players who are not even substitutes for substitutes and who would line up together for the first time: that is a huge mistake.
That sounds like a corporate tournament to me: Which ones are from accounting? And because they are from accounting, they collect the ID cards. Which ones are from height? See?
At height, play closed
James Rodriguez
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At altitude you have to play in tight quarters, trying to set the pace of the game with or without the ball (yes, or without it) and being very strategic to avoid long shots, free kicks and crosses as much as possible because the ball is faster and rises and bounces differently due to physics, more than due to the legend of the helium that was supposedly used to inflate the balls in Bolivia that the old football managers told.
Colombia’s coach, Néstor Lorenzo, is clear: “I don’t think we’ll choose that option (a high-class team). The idea is for the group to be together, then we’ll see who plays (against Bolivia) and who plays the second game (against Chile).” Of course: with media prudence, he said that he might call up a few more players just in case…
Meluk tells him
Gabriel Meluk
Sports Editor
@MelukLeCuenta
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