The well-known horn sounds, it's like music, the standing fans jump, the seated ones get up, the blood reverberates, the fans wave their scarves, their t-shirts and their flags, they hug each other, they shout, they cry, they release a powerful chorus that is born in its throats and spreads through every corner of Bogotá. It is the Santa Fe fans who raise their voices every time they team up with her, that indomitable lion who dresses in red and white, celebrates her birthday, like every February 28.
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The lion has been roaring for 83 years and does not age. He is a vital lion. Symbol of a team that boasts of being the country's first champion. A team of loyal fans. One of those fans who say they don't give up and deliver. As a promise. As a word of Santafereños. They are heirs of heirs. Lions sons of lions. Fans who have had to see horror and glory, hell and paradise. And they are still there, always.
Santa Fe fans on social networks
Today they encourage a team that is slowly showing signs of strength, awakening timid joy and new enthusiasm. It is a Santa Fe that started with shadows and has been clearing its horizon, that fights the games from beginning to end, so that no one doubts that they are still Santa Fe, despite the recent disasters.
It is a team led by an older lion who is Hugo Rodallega, a scorer who looks like he had played in that shirt all his life. With love and loyalty he defends her, he sweats her. Every team needs a mandatory hero: Hugo is it.
On the technical bench is the Uruguayan Pablo Peirano, who knows well that lineage of determination, fight and courage. Santa Fe needs technicians who also roar: Peirano does it, he was the one chosen last year to vindicate a beaten team. And, for now, on the ninth round, things have not gone badly: 16 points, he is among the eight, he has some memorable victories and some outstanding games.
Néstor Gómez / EL TIEMPO
Peirano is still assembling his pieces, mitigating the errors, plugging the gaps. He chose an idea and defends it. And the team responds, mechanizes, adapts. This 83-year-old Santa Fe will not be a machine, it is not a fantasy, it is not yet ready for a poem, but it is a team that already writes some warrior verses, which excites its people, so in need of new and urgent illusions.
The fans celebrate the club, the shield, the symbols, the idols that have passed, the heroic triumphs, the great deeds, they do it with the same passion every year, regardless of the dramas of each present. But today, at 83 years old, he also celebrates a team that, at least for now, does not let them down. It excites them.
PABLO ROMERO
Editor of EL TIEMPO
@PabloRomeroET
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