Without James or Falcao, a supportive Colombia exorcised their ghosts.
In its premiere on the opening day of the Copa América, a team in full transition beat Ecuador by the minimum, the same rival that sent it to the couch last November with a humiliating win that marked the departure of the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz and the arrival by Reinaldo Rueda, the strategist who has managed to straighten the path of the national team in just three official matches.
A fought victory, in overalls, with little shine, thanks to the solitary goal of Edwin Cardona in one of the few plays in which he managed to bring together his most creative players.
Input, Wheel surprised deploying a team with innovations in all lines before the two recent games by knockout, but with the undeniable presence of Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, the
todocampista
Juventus that has become the soul of this Colombia, the first tricolor in many years that did without its two star figures, who ended the European season among cottons. The absence of James Rodríguez, who in his worst moments always found refuge in his national team and has said he felt disrespected by Rueda, has been particularly controversial. It was precisely Cardona who was in charge of using the mythical
ten
of the coffee growers.
In attack, Rueda opted for Miguel Ángel Borja, the goalscorer of Junior de Barranquilla who on Thursday marked the agonizing tie in the knockout rounds against Argentina, and Rafael Santos Borré, of River Plate.
A
South American
duo
that relegated to the bank the listed
European
Duván Zapata and Luis Fernando Muriel, the sensation couple in Serie A with Atalanta.
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The duel, with an undeniable taste of revenge for the Colombians, began stuck in the first minutes, when Ecuador, a very powerful team physically, exerted a high pressure that bothered a Colombia that is still looking for its best version, but wasted attitude. The attackers Borja and Borré were the first defenders of the team. The ball did not reach either Cuadrado or Cardona, those in charge of the ideas, who crashed again and again with the rocky Ecuadorians. Little by little they were shaken off at first by many frictions and few emotions.
The two creatives called to pull the strings of the team took advantage of a distant free kick near the end of the first half to finally get together. The ball invited to try an unlikely shot like those that Cardona has executed on more than one occasion, but
Boca Juniors'
ten
surprised with a double wall with Cuadrado. The Juventus player threw the ball into the area, where Borja was, who lowered it headlong to a Cardona who never stopped his career and shot Pedro Ortiz, the Emelec goalkeeper. A full-blown laboratory move, which paved the way for the Colombians with a dose of suspense. Although the Argentine judge Néstor Pitana annulled the goal at first, the VAR validated it.
The excess of crashes, exacerbated by the soft state of the court, took its toll on the players. The match was repeatedly interrupted by two blows suffered by both David Ospina, the Napoli goalkeeper, as well as the Ecuadorian winger Angelo Preciado, of the Belgian Genk, or the winger Gonzalo Plata, champion of Portugal with Sporting Lisbon, who was relieved and in pain with 20 minutes to go. Before the end of the first half, Colombian side Yairo Moreno also left the field in tears due to an apparent muscle injury, and near the end the same happened with center-back Oscar Murillo, his partner in the Mexican Pachuca. Cardona's goal was enough to unbalance a tough game from start to finish, and thus place Colombia at the top of Group A alongside Brazil,that in the first hour he thrashed 3-0 to a decimated Venezuela.
Rueda comes from facing two trials by fire in the qualifying rounds for the World Cup in Qatar, which he overcame with a win over Peru in Lima (0-3) and a draw in Barranquilla against Messi's Argentina (2-2). He barely took office at the beginning of this year, after Queiroz's project was shipwrecked both in the heat of Barranquilla, where he fell 0-3 with Uruguay, and in the height of Quito, where an exuberant Ecuador had no mercy and humiliated him 6- 1, the worst drop for coffee growers in qualifying in more than 40 years.
Those days seem very distant, with an Ecuador that has lost steam. Gustavo Alfaro's team was by then the pleasant surprise of the qualifying rounds, and now it comes from conceding two defeats against Brazil on the road (2-0) and Peru at home (1-2). The praise that rained down on the Argentine coach has given way to the first criticisms, which will increase after the fall in the debut of the Copa América, his third in line.
Rueda, on the other hand, extended the unbeaten streak in the Copa América of the Colombian fence, guarded by Ospina, who had a couple of worthwhile saves at the end of the match. In another wheel of nut in the game of thrones of the South American benches, in the edition of two years ago, also in Brazil, the then promising Colombia de Queiroz said goodbye after four games with its goal in zero, after falling on penalties in the quarterfinals against Chile.
The
South American
Red
was directed by Rueda at that time.