Deportes Tolima dreams of getting its fourth star, the third in the last four years. It is a record that many teams envy, including some greats that, in the same period, did not return to an Olympic lap, such as Millonarios, Medellín or Nacional, the rival in the dispute for the first crown of 2022.
Tolima also has the merit that it is in the race, firm and alive, in all the competitions in which it is participating: will play the quarterfinals of the Copa Colombia against Medellín and is the first Colombian team in four years to reach the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores: they will face the powerful Flamengo, three days after the League final.
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Hernán Torres feels at home in Tolima
Hernán Torres, the manager from the bench that Tolima has reached the last instance of the championship in the last three semesters, explained, at a press conference, the keys to the success of his team in the last year and a half.
“Three finals in a row in the League, one in the Cup and one in the Super League are five finals. It is a teamwork. I cannot say that I am a great sage, that is a lie. We have a strong team that sticks up for all of us, that fights and gets the results game after game. We have had many difficulties, no one can imagine what we have experienced, but this group has been able to recover from all the adversities and all the things that football has. This team has been humble, quiet: grind, work and get results, “said the DT.
Torres, 61, is a man of the house, but he has also been successful in other lands: He made Millonarios champion after 24 years, in 2012; he returned América to the first division in 2016, after five years of torture. In addition, he was Peruvian champion with Melgar, in 2018, and led Medellín to the final of the 2014-II League, which he lost against Santa Fe.
The merit of Gabriel Camargo to make Tolima grow
One of the key factors for Tolima to be higher and higher in Colombian soccer is stability. From 2018 to today, he has only had two coaches: Alberto Gamero and Hernán Torres. It is the team that has had fewer technicians in that period: Santa Fe changed coach nine times; Medellín, America and Junior, eight; National, seven; Cali, six, and Millonarios, three.
Except in 2017, when Gamero’s departure to Junior generated instability that led the team to have four coaches in one year (Gregorio Pérez, Óscar Héctor Quintabani and José ‘Cheché’ Hernández, before the return of samarium), the tranquility from the bank brought it since 2014. That year they won the Colombia Cup.
Torres gives a lot of weight in what is happening in the team to Tolima’s largest shareholder, Gabriel Camargo.
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“This merit goes to Senator Camargo, who was the one who formed this human group since December of last year; We dedicate this victory to him from his sickbed because I know this makes him very happy. Before the game he sent us a message and today we are fighting for big things. Sometimes we forget about him and he is the manager of this whole project”.
The history of Gabriel Camargo with Tolima
Camargo has a long relationship with Tolima. He arrived in 1979, when the club was about to disappear. Two years later, the team was runner-up and qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time. He repeated in 1982. But at the beginning of the following year, he decided to invest in Santa Fe.
He returned in 1993, when the team was going down. He did not manage to avoid it, but he returned quickly and since then Tolima has been the protagonist.
For health reasons, Camargo left the presidency of Tolima two months ago and handed over the post to his son, César, who yesterday, on social networks, recalled that the road has been very complicated to get where he is.
“This is a team that has a very beautiful story to tell in the sense that nothing has been easy, no title that we have won. You saw the 2003 title, that title was at the last minute, but instead, the 2018 title, in the 93rd minute with Banguero’s goal, was the same. He was always long-suffering,” he recalled.
“The person who has the capacity to succeed sees himself represented in Deportes Tolima: he had to fight it out at the beginning and then he was successful. So he touched us, he touched us to win suffered, ”added César Camargo. And against Nacional it will not be easy. Sure.
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