Yes, yes, yes, yes… I know very well that no one has died or been born the day before, that the bread burns at the oven door, that the trusting hare lost the race against the tortoise, that exaggerated confidence is the mother of contempt, that no game has ever been won without having been played.
According to the criteria of
Yes, yes, yes, yes… I also know that in football it is repeated ad nauseam that the first thing is always to respect the rival without underestimating him, without believing him to be a cockroach for the boots of a giant. And it is true: that must be repeated and repeated.
The logic
But with all that, well… let’s see! The rival of the Colombian National Team this Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Copa America is Panama, one of the surprises of the tournament. Yes, a pleasant surprise. It is Panama, It is not Uruguay, it is not Brazil, it is not Argentina, and Although football is the dynamic of the unthinkable, it also has a lot of logic.
James RodrÃguez, Colombia’s star.
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It is obvious that one thing is one thing and another thing is another thing; that a storm is coming and that the neighbor is tormented are not the same thing.
Panama has tough physical virtues, he felt less than USA, and then they retreated and started losing, but they bet their winning chips on the good footwork of their midfielders and the speed of their attackers to come back from a match and win 2-1, after resisting with a knife between their teeth at the end and qualifying.
Doing that against the home team, against their natural power in the area, has an undeniable merit. And Panama also knew how to assume the weight of the game and did so when they understood they were superior to Bolivia and crushed her 3-1.
Luis Diaz, at the Copa America.
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Of course they are all more than Bolivia, even San MarinoI think that today a baseball team beats Bolivia in soccer…
With all due respect, as Julito would say in La W, Colombia showed its first phase to be electric and brilliant, and dropped enough reasons and arguments to think without breaking your head that beating Panama is the ‘natural’ result in this tournament.
The triumph
According to Google, Colombia’s probability of victory is 74 percent in the 90 minutes. To that we can add another 17 percent in penalties. Panama’s is 9 percent. In that 9 percent for Panama today, of course, we can include the two victories they have already achieved over Colombia in the only two official matches in which they have faced each other, both in the 2005 Gold Cup: 1-0 in the group stage and 3-2 in the semi-final. It’s football and that happens.
John Cordoba
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To prevent this from happening again, Colombia has to ‘play its game’, a serious match, with defensive security and offensive power, imposing the speed of the game to take it to the areas and situations that suit it or that the development of the game itself dictates.
We have to play with a cool head, with a lot of seriousness and, fundamentally, without underestimating Panama. That is the most important thing,
I don’t think the game will be a piece of cake for a hungry man, or cotton candy for an afternoon stroll. In football, there are fewer and fewer easy games. It will most likely be a close game with a tight score.
Colombia selection.
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Yes, yes, yes, yes… I know that we will have to run, that we will have to put our foot in it, that we will have to be very responsible, that we will have to play football the way it has been played and that we will have to win the way it has been won because, without underestimating, the rival is Panama and, well, we have to beat them…
Gabriel Meluk
Sports editor at EL TIEMPO
@MelukLeCuenta
#Colombian #team #impose #logic #underestimating.. #Meluk #tells
