The pages of glory of Millionaires in the Copa Libertadores are few and already yellowish. He reached the semifinals three times (1960, 1973 and 1974) and the quarterfinals twice, in which the rivalry with Atlético Nacional was born, which eliminated him in both to reach the final (1989 and 1995).
He was absent from the top club tournament on the continent for 14 years (from 1997 to 2013) and in the last 25 years they have never gone beyond the group stage. This year he was fired after four games, after losing 3-1 on Wednesday against Atlético Mineiro in Belo Horizonte.
The press has recognized Millonarios for his good game idea, the promotion of players from the minor divisions and the stability that the directives have given to their coach, Alberto Gamero, who took over in December 2019 to replace Jorge Luis Pinto.
The problem in the Libertadores comes from the local tournament
However, the team is in debt with the results. At the beginning of his fourth year in office, the only thing Millonarios has to show in this regard is the 2022 Colombia Cup, in which he beat Junior in the final.
For the rest, Millionaires has failed in the vast majority of final instances. Twice he came very close to a title, having everything in his favor: in the first half of 2021, he arrived in Bogotá to play against Tolima, with a miraculous draw in the first leg after a controversial penalty, which Juan Carlos Pereira converted. Then, Tolima ended up winning at El Campín to give the Olympic turn.
The second was in the second half of last year, in which he reached the last date of the semifinal depending on himself: if he won, he would face Medellín in the final. He lacked character and a goal by Diego Herazo hid the pain a bit to tie the classic against Santa Fe. The two were left out and Pereira got his first star.
Those two games left consequences when facing the Copa Libertadores. The title put him to the group stage. Since they did not succeed, they were two years in previous instances (a ‘Pre-Libertadores’, in practice), in which, in addition, they always had far superior Brazilian rivals, Fluminense and Atlético Mineiro.
The constant, a weakened payroll on the fly
It’s not just the draw’s fault, of course. Millionaires have lacked a deep hand when preparing the payroll to fight in an international tournament.
“We have players who are going to give us a very important hand, almost 90 percent of those we have stayed. There is a team to compete. I told them when the selection list and the association award came out that there are nine players who are in Millionaires today. It is a reason to believe that we have a very good team,” Gamero said on January 20.
Soon after, the team loaned Daniel Ruiz to Santos and before that, they sold Carlos Gómez to MLS. He did not replace them. Since he has not found alternatives in positions in which he has had problems for a while, such as left back: Omar Bertel does not have a substitute and in Belo Horizonte Jorge Arias played impromptu in that position.
It is not the first time that Millionaires sell a player with the tournament underway and without the possibility of a suitable replacement: they have already left, in this administration of Enrique Camacho and Gustavo Serpa, Harold Santiago Mosquera, Matías de los Santos, Cristian Arango and Rivaldo Rodríguez, plus the failed transfer of Andrés Felipe Román to Boca Juniors. Transactions that, in practice, have not been reflected in feedback on the payroll.
In terms of player promotion, the Millionaires model is working for them. But the fan asks them for titles and the debt is enormous. For this reason, the desire for the Copa Libertadores long ago became an impossible love.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc
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