Colombia Sub-20

Estuve leyendo en un link del torneo y aparentemente si van a pasar los dos. Esperemos que sea así.

 

----------Arias
Jimenez---Segura---Balanta----Arroyo

K.Balanta------Atuesta

Valencia--------Ramirez

Nike-----Galeano

 

Casi clavamos a los venecos. Galeano y Atuesta armaron una pared muy buena.

 

Los arbitros un asco. 2 offside nos han cobrado que no eran. Los venecos tambien han tenido sus oportunidades, tienen un man por la derecha que es una maquina. Atuesta, Nike y K. Balanta lo mejor de Colombia de momento. Ramirez un poco perdido. Galeano empezó muy bien pero después se puso muy carroloco. Nike tiene el espíritu de "Cheo10", me parece un crack.

 

Si. El man es bueno, pero le esta costando entrar en juego, claro que eso no solo es culpa de el, los venecos están presionando bien arriba y con mucha intensidad, no tiene tiempo de crear. Aun asi, me parece que el equipo ha creado varias opciones importantes, dos de Galeano y una de Nike que podrian haber sido gol. Ademas, esas 2 jugadas de offside eran gol seguro.

 

Nos clavaron. 1-0 cuando estabamos mejorando.

 

Le ganaron 1-0 a Paraguay. El gol lo hizo Michael Nike Gomez.

--------------Mora
Jimenez---Balanta----Lucumí----Fuentes

----Rojano--------K.Balanta

Galeano----Ramirez----Cortes

---------------Nike

 

I saw the game vs Venezuela and Arias didn't look bad. As far as I know he hasn't played pro yet. On the other hand, Mora has, even if it is Torneo Águila.

Today I'll watch the game against Paraguay because it wasn't shown live, but I hope to see Ramírez more involved in the game, against Venezuela he had a couple of good long shots but was completely lost. The defense wasn't terrible but wasn't up to par with Piscis standard (after all, that's his best weapon).

I really like Nike, he is a Cheo-like quality player, able to score them and protect the ball to create assists. Galeano is a BULL, He is quite fast and strong, unlike any "white" strikers we've had, like The Venezuelan Rondon but very very RAW. There's also the problem that Piscis is using him as a right winger.... So he might have looked bad by playing where he isn't used to.

I didn't like The fullbacks to be honest, the left one was Santiago Ruiz from Envigado, who was completely destroyed by the Venezuelan winger Córdova, who seems like a potential star for them.

Our best players are undoubtedly the centerbacks and central midfielders, I don't really have anything to complain about them because all four were awesome. K. Balanta is the next Carlos Sanchez, Atuesta is a potential regista, and Segura is Mature for his age and J. Balanta was an unknown to me and looked very solid.

 

Colombia had a good game against Paraguay, we were very aggresive and Paraguay weren't able to beat us physically. Michael Nike scored from a great cross from Mauricio Cortes that he controlled like a crack and shot between the legs of his marker to score the goal. We had 4 great chances to score, but were unable to make them count. Nonetheless, Paraguay had 3 chances, and two of them hit the bar.

Individually, I have to talk about the goalkeeper Mora, one of the chances that Paraguay had were because he was unable to catch a very slooooooow shot from a paraguayan. Despite that, I think that he had a decent game, his goal kicks are great and is very imposing physically.

The left back for this game was Gabriel Fuentes, a player from Barranquilla FC, he is mostly a defensive LB, he doesn't attack a lot but the paraguayan wingers had a lot of problems to surpass him.

The other novelty for this game was Rojano, who played in the midfield alongside K. Balanta. He had a decent game, he is a bit more defensive than what I hope from the partner of Balanta (who by the way once again was great), but at least he wasn't giving the ball away like Tello in the last sudamericano.

Mauricio Cortes should play the next game too, he was a threat during the whole time he played with his crosses and speed.

The only player that has been dissapointing for me is Ramirez. I hoped that he would be the next "BLACK" thing, even though he isn't black, and hasn't affected the game possitively nor negatively, and that is sad for a guy that I've seen play and know that can give us a lot more.

 

Michael Nike está destruyendo a los peruanos. Vamos ganando 2-0 con 1 de Obregon y otro de Nike. En el primero hizo un gran pase al espacio y Ramirez lanzó un pase de la muerte perfecto para Obregon. El segundo fue un gran pase bombeado de Ramirez que Nike recibió en el área, se sacó a 2 defensas peruanos y definió cruzado.

 

All in all, I think this was a good tournament for Colombia, sure, it would've been cool to see them against better opponents, but from what I saw, and if a good amount of these players are going to the Sudamericano, we will at least reach the "Hexagonal Final".

The MVP for Colombia in this tournament was undoubtedly Michael Nike Gomez, probably the most complete striker we currently have of this age. Strong, fast, creative and above all, he can put the ball in the back of the net.

Other highlights were all the centerbacks, Segura is the LCB and is very tall and has a great technique, reminds me a lot of Alexis Henriquez, Jhon Balanta is pure speed and guts but isn't bad with the ball at his feet. Jhon Lucumí was the other CB that Piscis used and is probably the most raw of the three, I saw him a bit nervous against Paraguay in the beginning of the game, but as the minutes passed he looked better and better, and today he played 20 minutes in the Left back.

The 3 central midfielders were very solid. Balanta was the best one in my opinion, he recovered a lot of balls and he looked like a man playing against toddlers most of the time. Atuesta is without a doubt the one with the most offensive potential of the three, he is fast and is very accurate at short and long passing, and despite having a great technique, isn't afraid to get on the ground and fight for the ball. The third one is Daniel Rojano, he is the middle ground between Atuesta and Balanta, decent passing and a bit more defensive.

The attacking midfielder is one of the three positions where I have some doubts. Despite having a great game today, "el indio" Ramirez wasn't very good the other two, despite that, I would still trust him for the sudamericano, after all, he just recovered from an injury a month ago, and might not be in his best form yet.

Mauricio Cortes looked great against Paraguay, and today he was very active the time he had on field, he will definitely be in the Sudamericano. Juan Balanta is a very quick and talented player, but is the most fragile one, he spent a lot of time on the ground in this tournament. Nonetheless, his ability to hold the ball is very useful, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the final list. Ever Valencia is the most versatile of the three wingers, played both left and right wing with good results, probably the fastest of the three and the one that looked better during the tournament.

There were two other strikers besides Nike. Sergio Galeano and Jorge Obregon both had the very difficult job of playing out of position. Galeano and Obregon were used during this tournament mostly in the right wing, with decent results. Galeano looked very out of place, but his strength and speed were very uncomfortable for all the teams (including Colombia, haha). Obregon is obviously a target man, very strong and with a good touch, and looked a lot better in the wing than Galeano, and despite not being very fast, he was able to get in front of the goal and had a couple of good chances during the tournament.

The goalkeeper position is to me the hardest to evaluate because they had at most 7 or 8 decent shots from the opposing teams. Of the two, my favorite was probably Manuel Arias, didn't have any problems with aerial balls and the only goal received was from a great play from the venezuelans. Mora looked very nervous against Paraguay, almost giving away a goal but as the time passed he got a lot better.

The fullbacks weren't terrible, but weren't anything special. The best is probably the right back Santiago Jimenez, decent defending, a lot better attacking. The two left backs Piscis used were mostly defensive and did their job well. The best of the three LB's used was probably Santiago Ruiz.

I see a lot of potential for the main call up, if Piscis is allowed to call Benedetti, Casierra, Lucho Garcia and is able to find a decent offensive left back we will have a good tournament.

You can watch the matches against Perú, Venezuela and Paraguay here:

Perú:

Paraguay:

Venezuela:


There are also some highlights in that channel if you don't have time to watch the games.

 

All in all, that is a very tough group for us, Ecuador has a very good generation of players coming up, and Chile can never be discarded. Paraguay didn't look very tough in Copa de los Andes, but you can never know with them. Brazil didn't qualify the last Sudamericano, so they will probably bring all their guns to this one.

 

Yup, Perú seems like The weakest team for this sudamericano.