The capital classic is coming and Bogotá accelerates its city hunch. Santa Fe Y millionaires they divide as if the hills were opened. Monserrate stands tall to better see what will happen in The Campin. The sky will be bluer. The blood will be redder. The fans will be more fans. They, individuals with shattered nerves, live the waiting room with anguish. Perhaps their consciences ask them to be calm, to be patient, but they do not listen to that voice, they prefer to hear what their idols have to say before another classic, at the beginning of group A: they are the true voice of conscience.
They tell the Millonarios fans Luis Manuel Seijas and wrinkle their foreheads. They say to those from Santa Fe Henry Rojas and wrinkle the soul. They are at a physical distance, not emotional, because they are –and will be– part of the classic Bogota. They know glory, they were champions, and so important, that they live in the heart of their own fans, and in the daily curses of others.
And if someone scored a goal in a Bogota final, let them cast the first stone. That is Rojas, the one who painted the work that every footballer dreams of since he dreams: a goal in a final and against the classic rival. Henry was able to call on the help of the wind to guide the ball on that unlikely bombshell.
The classic that changed the life of Henry Rojas
“Every time I see a classic I go back to what was that December 17, 2017 –the date is tattooed in my memory–, when I was able to be part of the history of Millonarios with a beautiful goal. When a classic arrives, they talk about that and about what I could contribute to the most desired and dreamed title for a fan of any club: to win the final against the backyard rival. I constantly see it, sometimes I remember it, ”says Rojas and he doesn’t lie, it seems that the goal is there, in his head, now, already.
That of scoring a goal in the 85th minute, against Santa Fe, in the final, and then shouting champion in front of that rival, seems like a legend, a story taken from The Thousand and One Nights of Soccer. But Rojas, a classic Sheherazade, made it possible. And the story will not stop being told forever and ever: “I remember that I came with a pubalgia injury for 5 months, with infiltrations so as not to feel so much pain, with intermittent training, the doctors did everything so that I could play. In that final I felt fear, because of what could happen, because I was not on the same physical or athletic level, I thought about what could lead to my mistake, but when I had to enter I felt the confidence of the teacher (Miguel Russo), and that’s it, I entrusted myself to God and had peace of mind to bear the pain. It was a reward for effort,” says Rojas.
And if the cardinal fans think it was luck or sorcery, he argues that it was “divine help”, and that he managed to calculate everything: “I premeditated until when I hit the ball, my accommodation, how far I could let the ball bounce and from what surface of the foot I could kick so I would have the right direction and go past two or three men from Santa Fe. God helped me kick. When the ball hit the net I go to a corner to celebrate, and I see some infiltrated Millos fans in the distance, the venue was Santa Fe. There were 10 minutes left. Santa Fe went up, Tesillo almost scored us at 94, fortunately he didn’t connect well and that’s it…”, says Rojas, and how ironic for Santa Fe that the worst of his executioners is called Rojas.
Luis Manuel Seijas, in defense of the herd, always
But the classic, for it to be classic, has needed those players who remain in history for what they transmitted on the pitch, rival hatred, self-love. And if there are players who resemble his teams, let Seijas throw his first stone. Seijas played like a lion, he defended his herd like a lion, he roared like a lion. And if lions could speak, Seijas would speak like a lion. “The claw is a part of me,” he bellows.
Seijas, champion of the South American Cup, a League, a Cup and a Super League, considers himself to be from Santa Fe, and when it comes to talking about the classics, grrr!, we already know that he roars: “The classics are the most beautiful matches, because of the prelude, what is talked about on the street, is a week in which the pressure grows as the match arrives. The guards of the building remind you, or any person on the street, that’s when you realize what the classic means for the city; These are days of beautiful tension”, says the Venezuelan lion, from Kansas (USA), already retired and in the process of becoming DT Seijas.
His duels against Millionaires made his blood boil. He couldn’t bear to lose. And on the field he fought and had brave rivals: if the lion roared, they would bite in front. “I remember the duels with Gerardo (Bedoya) and Andrés (Pérez). We were kicking ourselves. I was a bully, I liked confrontation. Gerardo told me something and I answered him, and the whole game like that. Today Gerardo and Andrés are good friends of mine”, says Seijas. And if asked who was the bravest lion of that time, he denies that it was him. “No, it was Precious Leider. He lived the classics in a way that I never saw in another person, he had his story with Millionaires…”.
Seijas does not keep track of how many classics he played, we promise him the data, he says that if there are more defeats, he prefers not to know, and laughs. Just in case, he played 27, won 8, tied 13 and lost 6. He scored two goals, in 2008 and 2010, and if they weren’t to win titles, he really enjoyed them. “The first was the most beautiful, a pass from Luisfer Mosquera, he put it on my head, I ended up inside the goal, then I went to celebrate with the bar, unforgettable.” So it was, Seijas did not score; Seijas was the goal.
Now he remembers a “spoiled” vacation in Miami because of Rojas’ goal. She was hurt, but she accepted it. “With good reason they hold that against us, we have to put up with it. I hope one day there will be a rematch”, he says, with his Santafereño voice who experienced the toughest rivalry on the field. “There was that game of provoking and they of bitching me. I don’t think I’ve crossed the line. I have a lot of respect for the Millonarios fans, it’s that the two fans make the Bogota classic what it is”.
Rojas knows that he remained in the perpetual hatred of the Reds. “They crack me up, they say rude things to me, but I always concentrate on my own. I understand the pain and the rage that they feel in me,” he says. And he ends with a statement: “But I stayed for the history of every Millos fan.”
The classic is heroes, memories and rivalry. So get ready because one more is coming. The fan’s conscience will ask for calm, but they don’t hear it: it’s a Bogota classic.
Paul Romero
Editor of THE TIME
@PabloRomeroET
More sports news
#millionaires #Santa #Rojas #Seijas #heroes #yesterday #beat #classic