Santa Fe, not to relive the nightmares of its last two finals against Bucaramanga

That 2017 was a nightmare that Santa Fe fans will not forget. Because the title escaped them against their classic rival. Santa Fe was a visitor in the first leg and lost 1-0. In the second leg, with a red team, they tied 2-2, with that goal from Henry Rojas in the 85th minute that collapsed the lions. The coach at that time was the Uruguayan Gregorio Perez, who today, from his home in Uruguay, remains very aware of Santa Fe and remembers with EL TIEMPO that episode that never left his head.

“Beyond the fact that time has passed, it hit me very hard, because I think the result in the 180 minutes was not fair, but it is football and we really had a great campaign,” Gregorio begins. “We didn’t lose any classic, any important match. We had a very good team. It was a bitter pill to swallow, when you lose the finals, you are marked.”

Gregorio has a brilliant mind, he has many fresh details in his head from that season, and especially from that final. “We went on to win 2-1, but before that there was a very big penalty against (Anderson) Plata that was not awarded.” Wilmar Roldanbut beyond that, without looking for excuses, when we were winning 2-1 it was our mistake and the rival’s virtue, but in the context of the two games, for me it was unfair,” he remembers with a bitterness that does not go away.

However, Gregorio, who has cardinal blood in his heart, thinks that Santa Fe has everything to come back this time. “The finals are very special and sometimes they are defined by details, but I think that on this occasion, without disparaging Bucaramanga, which has had a great campaign, Santa Fe is very good and physically it is a team that runs a lot and has a certain balance , but, logically, they are finals and sometimes we say one thing and it comes out differently… I believe that Santa Fe does have the tools to come back, with experienced players: Rodallega, if he is good, makes the difference. Santa Fe must take precautions and not give up its game methodology and not want to do in 10 minutes what has to be done in 90.”

In 2020, Santa Fe wanted revenge and shaken off that bitter defeat in the classic. With coach Harold Rivera he began that path. Rivera arrived at a time of crisis (2019), and Santa Fe ended up as the protagonist. In the year of the pandemic, they qualified for the final, which they lost at home against América, after a very tough defeat, 3-0 in Cali, a result that they could not overcome, reaching 2-0. Harold does not forget that moment that marked him.

“I remember it with sadness for not achieving the title, the tenth star, but on the other hand there is what Santa Fe experienced the year before that final, of being close to relegation, we got it out, we qualified for the semifinal; The following year, the year of the pandemic, we had to play the final without an audience, it would have been something else with an audience. It’s not the same as having a full house to look for the feat of overturning that score, it wasn’t enough for us, but we played well, we scored two goals, and in terms of tactics, Professor Juan Cruz Real (rival coach) did what he did with that advantage. It was putting in a lot of defense, closing the goal… we couldn’t score the third goal, but very good things were done,” he says.

Rivera is aware that this result in the first leg was a very hard blow; different case now, when the difference is only one goal. “We were not clear, we made mistakes that perhaps we did not make in other games and they cost us, we were, like now, very strong at home and in that game there were mistakes that made the score so long; in Bogotá it was not enough for us…”, he says. However, he believes that now Santa Fe has a good chance of turning around.

“He has the ability to do it, they have had a good campaign, without detracting from Bucaramanga. Santa Fe has a lot of offensive variants, with Rodallega, Rodríguez, with the medium distance of its midfielders, has arguments to be able to achieve victory, which would be gratifying and deserved for the president (Eduardo) Méndez.”