Millionaires managed to get excited about the feat, that of defeating Fluminense in Bogotá and all its figures, but what began with an early illusion, ended in a prolonged nightmare, with an expulsion, a missed penalty, and a painful defeat at home, in the first leg of phase 2 of the Copa Libertadores .
Fluminense started the match in a measured way, as if he didn’t want to devour his rival from the start, as if he didn’t want to get tired or as if he was simply surprised. It is that Millos was motivated, eager for victory, for a feat. It started very well, and everything was blue hope.
They were only 7 minutes away when the ambassador team celebrated. Daniel Ruiz was the toll, the ball passed through his feet, he decided where he should go, at the feet of the Venezuelan Eduardo Sosa, who received, turned around, got rid of a hindrance, and took out his withering shot, so much so that The archer didn’t even move. 1-0.
The dream was blue. Joy was blue. Millos did orchestra. Silva, Román, Sosa played, Ruiz appeared with one of his own, the team was ahead, focused and brave. Fluminense was not found. But at 19 minutes, the dream turned into a nightmare, when Sosa, who already had a yellow card, hit a rival in the face, and bye, red. And that was the catastrophe.
There was a lot of game left. A lot. And Millonarios had to change his entire plan, his entire strategy. The perfect game turned into drama, that of defending the advantage with soul.
Gamero called Ruiz, passed him to the right, to play there tied up, not for pleasure but out of necessity, to make the wall of 4, the wall of 4 so that the Brazilians did not enter.
Fluminense decided to crash into that wall. He played through the center. From time to time he managed to crack with a deep pass. In one of those, at 34, Fred was injured, his right leg was frozen, seized, he fell, he twisted, he asked for the change. Miles took a breath. One of the tanned, one of the stars, was leaving. The problem is that one left and another entered. Germán Cano, the former Medellín: a scorer.
The Brazilian goal began to look likely. And it came before the end of the first half. One of those goals that collapses anyone before going to rest. The wall did not fail, the defense failed, the back line failed, because it was a throw-in and they could not reject it. A shot arrived that Álvaro Montero released once, and a second time, as if the ball burned him and everyone else, because nobody took it out, nobody pushed it, he walked around the area, indiscreet, until David Braz arrived, 42 minutes, and resolved, put the 1-1.
They were already going to the dressing room, but Fluminense did not stop, they did not stop in their offensive attempt. And that was when Montero got even and had a save. Finally that first time is over. At last Millionaires took a breath.
Fluminense grew up
Millos returned from the dressing room determined to fight, not to lose. Not to draw And that in the first minutes Montero had already had another cover.
And when it was expected that in that second half the field would tilt and Millos would have to defend, well no. He brought out some inner strength, attacked, the ball got to Ruiz, who did one of his artist maneuvers, and he was brought down in the area. Penalty!, the entire El Campín stadium bellowed, and at the same time, the judge’s whistle sounded.
They were 49 minutes when Mackalister Silva, the captain, the most experienced, the one who does not usually fail, because he failed. The goalkeeper flew, guessed his intention and avoided the goal. And the stadium was like an iceberg: cold, still.
Millionaires did not surrender. Jader Valencia went to the court to see if he carried the miracle under his arm. Fluminense was slowing down, he was getting tired. The problem is that every change brought new trouble, like when Felipe Melo left and the veteran Ganso came in…
Millos, with all his difficulties, tried, went to the front, maneuvered, approached, but it was a huge risk. So in a lost ball, came the fast play of the Brazilians, and the wall broke. The filtered pass crossed the Martinelli blue block for Luis Henrique, this one for Cano, who remembered how it is to score goals in Colombia, he had not forgotten, 1-2, in 77 minutes.
Millionaires could no longer get up. I no longer had strength or football or ideas. What’s more, he almost received the third, but Luis Henrique failed after bathing goalkeeper Montero. And in each new approach, without demanding much, he made all of Millos tremble. Cano could have solved a couple of times.
So the best thing for Millonarios was for that game to end, for that game that started as a feat to end. The return game will be the other Tuesday in Brazil. The feat was uphill.
PAUL ROMERO
Editor of THE TIME
@PabloRomeroET
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