The dream of the star 16 Millionaires exploded in the last 90 minutes of the season, widely and precisely surpassed by a team like him Sports Tolima, which at this time must still be celebrating its third star, asserting its greater experience and the fact that it has fewer casualties than its rival.
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Millionaires went as far as they could. You can hardly find a more rugged campaign than this one for Alberto Gamero’s team: the departure of Matías de los Santos after two games, the loss of Andrés Felipe Román, who went from being a blue export man to fighting to play football again. soccer (and, of course, he accompanied his teammates in El Campín); Fredy Guarín’s license, who arrived as a figure and disappeared; the streak of injuries and casualties due to covid-19 and the expulsions of the last dates: one in the first 18 games and five in the auction.
Thus, from the base squad to play, Gamero was missing, take a breath, Román, Andrés Llinás, Juan Pablo Vargas, Felipe Banguero, Guarín, Kliver Moreno, Juan Camilo García, Cristian Arango and Ricardo Márquez. Almost a complete team.
Millionaires vs. Tolima in the final.
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The last dates seemed to agree with Gamero, who several times insisted that everyone who entered the field should be able to perform and contribute. But in the last game the whole structure fell down: Tolima went out with everything to look for the goal that would tip the final in his favor. He did not take cover, he did not go back. He advanced lines and surprised Millonarios, who tried to handle the game and the ball and ended up watching Tolima play, as an extension of the first half in Ibagué.
Millonarios had a hard time shaking himself: he lost half of the first time in that plan. Until he found the advantage goal, at 23 minutes, in the most surprising way possible: Bertel’s touch to Uribe, the blue striker opened the game to the left to wait for a center, and Daniel Ruiz, one of the new players from The team, which is not even 20 years old, instead of looking at a possible receiver, threw it at the near post at Álvaro Montero and beat him. Golazo!
Tolima felt the blow. The goal fell badly for him and he neither arrived nor pressed with the same ease. Millonarios did not have much handling either, he did not deliver the ball with great precision, but he managed to let the clock tick until the end of the first stage without passing major scares.
New match
Another thing was the start of the second stage, in which Tolima regained air and enthusiasm and, again, returned to the initial plan, with a soft drink on the payroll, the entry of Paraguayan Gustavo Ramírez by Juan Pablo Nieto. And that change gave a lot of freedom to a player who in the long run would be key, Juan Fernando Caicedo.
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If the first half was a tremor, the beginning of the second was a harsh aftershock, this one, with consequences: at 16 minutes, a bad rejection by goalkeeper Vargas ended in a center by Ánderson Plata and a header by Caicedo, to score both of the tie. Deserved? Totally.
And if in the first half the goal for Tolima was bad, the 1-1 was a stone that plunged Millonarios into despair. He couldn’t even give two passes in a row anymore. And in a ball that he lost leaving his field, in a bad return from Pereira to Murillo and a bad control of the central defender, a silver center came out that Caicedo fought with Paz until he won the option to finish and turn the game in favor of the visitors.
Millonarios disarmed his entire plan, sent all the men that were available to him in attack to the field to try to change a story that was coming very badly (Édgar Guerra, Hárrison Mojica, Jáder Valencia, Juan Camilo Salazar and Diego Abadía). None of them are on the list of those who had played the most games as a starter this semester. The thing was already going through despair. Millionaires tried to open the court and lift the ball, and he found himself almost two meters tall, those of Álvaro Montero. Down below he tried little and nothing.
And if something was missing to add to the blue drama, it came in the replacement time, when, as happened in Ibagué, the VAR reviewed an action in the Tolima area, for a double hand by Sergio Mosquera, but both rebounding. Referee Carlos Ortega allowed the game to continue and the dream of the miracle was over.
Tolima turned out to be a fair champion. Millonarios patched his team as best he could every eight days until reaching a well-deserved final, which he ended up losing due to lack of experience.
JOSÉ ORLANDO ASCENCIO
Sports Deputy Editor
@Josasc
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