Matías Bustos Milla
07/12/2020 - 18:39
- Clarín.com
- sports
Conmebol squeezed and threw the calendar on the table for the return of soccer in South America. Beyond the discomfort generated in the National Government ("The date was arbitrary," the Health Minister, Ginés González García was upset) and in the AFA, this decision on the start dates of the Libertadores and South American Cups accelerated anxieties in the teams that will play international competitions. Boca is one of them. But for a long time he has everything ready for the return, although now something key is missing: that the AFA approve with the wink of the Government the return to training .
For more than a month that Boca drew up and presented its protocol , with a translation of the original made by the Bundesliga. He even commissioned three sanitation tunnels to be used in Ezeiza, La Bombonera and the Quinquela Sports Center.
With maintenance authorizations because they are properties, the fields were conditioned, the replanting was done, and three of the playing fields of the property where Miguel Russo and company would practice again were leveled. The reason? Have them available for the campus to train divided into groups of 6 players on the different courts. All at the same time.
In fact, despite the fact that the technical staff integrates the risk groups twice (he was an oncology patient until two years ago and is over 65 years old), it was also thought to set up an isolated tent so that the coach could be in "contact" with their players.
Physical trainer Damián Lanatta not only planned the work that was done via Zoom but also organized logistics movements of training equipment (including stationary bikes and weights) for different members of the campus who had no resources at home for practices.
Miguel Russo is in Rosario doing the confinement. (@twitter).
"From the first moment, July was set as the month for the return and we are in the times that were said, but now with a date on the horizon, decisions must be made at the AFA," Clarín was told from within the structure of the club football.
They moved fast on the Board of Directors headed by Jorge Ameal. Just as they respected, endorsed and accompanied each decision of the AFA regarding stopping the ball, now they also warned that the South American entity set a restart date for the Libertadores (September 15) even against the will of Claudio Tapia and company.
That is why from Friday afternoon they entrusted and empowered the entity to expose the problems with the stipulated dates and reach a solution: they train again soon or the parties of Libertadores are postponed for a few weeks .
The original calendar that Conmebol proposed left a margin of two weeks in October to run the dates. There is optimism, but from the club the only thing they did before the AFA consultation was to mark that it takes about 60 days to have the team in good condition.
Now it is the AFA, with Claudio Tapia at the helm, which must negotiate with the government to return to training. And after that, notify Conmebol in which weeks the matches can be scheduled for the continuation of the group stage of the Cup.
In Boca, aware that several of their footballers will have to adapt to the new physical demands, they are waiting for the green light, because they have everything ready to return and prepare to complete a group that already has its three rivals training: Libertad (Paraguay), Caracas (Venezuela) and Independiente Medellín (Colombia).
