Junior explains why he did not want to continue playing against Millonarios and points to the referee

J.Unior from Barranquilla lost against Millonarios 3-2 in El Campín, with an action marked by controversy and with a reprehensible attitude, not wanting to restart the match after 1-0, scored by Leonardo Castro.

Before the goal, which was born from a corner kick taken by Jhoan Hernández, there was an attacking action by Millonarios that was preceded by a foul by Castro on Edwin Herrera that judge Jorge Duarte did not whistle, due to a poor performance.

The Junior players delayed the resumption of play for almost four minutes and when they did, they stood still, exposed to a second goal from Millonarios that Castro almost scored.

All of the Junior players appeared at the post-match press conference to explain the situation. The spokesperson was taken by the team captain, Didier Moreno.

“If we want our football to improve there are many things to improve. What happened today cannot continue to happen. There is a judge who has some assistants who are telling him that he has a foul and he, out of arrogance, does not want to sanction it. “He triggers a series of errors that end up harming Junior in the game,” Moreno said.

The player pointed to Duarte and said that, on the court, the judge told them that he had seen the infraction, but that he had not wanted to whistle it.

“We do not want to take credit away from Millonarios for their victory, but we do want to set a precedent. A referee, on the field of play, cannot tell the players that they are not professionals and that he saw that it was a foul, but that he did not want to sanction it. That cannot continue to happen in our football if we want to make a leap in quality,” added the visitor's captain.

Junior coach Arturo Reyes also referred to what happened. “We are not saying that the goal is invalid. “What we are arguing and protesting is that the lineman himself was telling the referee that it was a foul and the judge did not make the decision as he had to,” he declared.

The precedent that Junior brought with Jorge Duarte

Junior had already had a history with Duarte. On March 2, the man from Santander was the central referee of the match they played against Atlético Nacional in Barranquilla, which ended 0-0.

That day, Venezuelan Luis 'Cariaco' González had to leave the field after a blow from Nacional player Edwin Torres, which caused him to fracture his collarbone. Duarte didn't even call a foul.

The injury became complicated and 'Cariaco' had to undergo surgery. “The team's medical department is allowed to share details about the condition of Luis “Cariaco” González, who suffered an injury during the match against Atlético Nacional last Saturday at the Metropolitano stadium, Roberto Meléndez. “A comminuted fracture of the clavicle was identified, accompanied by a secondary pneumothorax,” the club said at the time.

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