“In football, as in life, there are no rematches. Only new opportunities”. The always pragmatic Diego Pablo Simeone said it before facing Atlético de Madrid against Real Madrid, in the 2016 Champions League final. Removing the weight of the final lost against the same rival, in 2014, was the objective of the Argentine DT. But to his regret, his Atlético – because the contemporary team bears his last name – fell again.
He did it because in the sensible world it is written that the Real’s crown is orejona, but perhaps also because in the intelligible world the footballer owes his to the words he carries in his head and the feeling he carries in his chest. And the thirst for revenge, anchored in the human desire to change the past, connects with the illusion of everyone who kicks a ball: transform the impossible into reality.
Today the past becomes present
That notion of revenge, as elusive as it is inspiring, is the one that reigns today in Colombia due to the reunion between Millonarios and Nacional.
64 days after the day that changed history, when the Bogotá team won the star from Antioquia in El Campín, in a final full of drama and tears, blues and greens meet again in an official game, after the friendly that Millonarios won in the United States, in July. Today, the situation puts them at different times, but with the present past.
(Cyclist killed by tractor-trailer in Cajicá: this is what is known about the accident).
Millionaires arrive with tired legs that, in the eyes of the fans and refusals of Alberto Gamerothey still have not recovered from the requirement of title 16. Nacional does it with William Amaral, the survivor in the technical line of the avalanche that represented for Paulo Autuori the final lost on June 24. Millionaires appears with doubts due to the good game that he cannot find and the injuries to Luis Paredes and Juan Pablo Vargas. Nacional, leader of the championship, with an unbeaten record in four games –three in the League and one in the Cup–, and a rhythm that the reinforcements and those previously injured understand better and better. Millonarios bursts in with a shirt with a white background and light blue waves that pays homage to the sky to which the Bogota hymn sings and to which Millonarios has given the color royal blue. Nacional does it with green skin, that of the most cupbearer team, the largest in the country.
In the dressing rooms, no player thinks that today’s game is “a new opportunity.” Everyone imagines that it is a rematch, one to be carried out and another to be avoided. And although in reality it is not, since the title has already been settled, in emotion it is. Football lets you dream.
More news
SPORTS
#Millionaires #Nacional #talk #rematch #final #Campín #today