If it were up to me I would have a domestic microciclo and non- FIFA friendlies like Crzd always likes to advocate. I am with you. Queiroz for some reason is not. Just does not like what he sees at all apparently.
J - half this board was ready to throw in the towel at half time yesterday and expected the side to completely come undone. Typical Colombia they said. Instead, despite having no subs of strategic merit to throw on they willed themselves back into the game, tied and should have won if the ref had looked at the VAR. That's where they grew up, they overcame what typical Colombia would have let go and took away a valuable point. I get that folks have an axe to grind with CQ over the call up, but our team played angry in that second half and with a different attitude.
Morelos is a big, athletic body and he drew markers and spaced the field so our lines could come up. He did nothing when on the ball, but his presence certainly helped yesterday. As we say, "si solo para estorbar los chilenos' - but it worked. He is clumsily falling all over the box on the tying goal but it creates the space for Mojica and Falcaos combination /deflection.
This generation have shown since LONG TIME AGO that they dont surrender and dont let go and took away a valuable point................yesterday wasnt something new.........actually since bolillo and lara i ddidnt remember to play with 3 9s to get a draw.... We already have this episodes when we are lossing and we tried to push and play with disorder, but with heart...sometimes without results results Chile 2012 Chile 2013 brasil 2014 england 2018 japan 2018 Please dont make this draw as it was the first time.......that we looked desesperate to draw. So nothing of yesterday was an evolution J - half this board was ready to throw in the towel at half time yesterday and expected the side to completely come undone. Typical Colombia they said. what is typical is that colombians repeat things that doesnt apply
That may be and is further evidence our team is growing up. If this game is just another example so be it. The point is that if this is the case, and I agree it is, it definitely wasn't the accepted sentiment of the posters in this forum last night who reacted like we were about to get crushed when Chile scored last night. The playing with 3 9s as an in game decision doesn't bother me. The call up did. Once the game starts you work with what you have. We tied, yes, but we created more than enough opps to win and I saw us score three goals (don't agree with the waving off of the goal). He didn't have a winger or pace striker to put on, so the in game choice I don't have issue with personally - that we shouldn't have been in that position I agree with.
On one hand I agree with JMezzy’s frustration that we can’t seem to get past Chile, but on the other hand we lost both our RB’s in the span of 10 minutes into the first WCQ and 30 min into the 2nd WCQ forcing our midfield general to drop back and play RB. Like I said in my earlier post, we seem to have a recent track record of losing players to injury in the first half - is that bad luck or something else??? We lost Mina before the game even started - maybe we should pool some money and send our players the P90x workouts?? Despite being down 2-1, we didn’t fold or get flustered but instead we fought back to get the draw despite the odd choices of subs CQ selected. In the 2018 cycle we grinded out just about every game and and last night wasn’t a grinded result but a fight where we didnt just rely on desperate crosses / long balls but managed to play good possession game in the 2nd half via short/quick/smart passes with the occasional shot from distance. Given the circumstances, I am happy with the result with the only caveat being the choice of subs and depth chart we had to work with, keeping in mind that we need to cut some slack bc of covid. But CQ and company should try and be more flexible rather than force the 4-3-3 all the time
I am not unhappy that we drew. In the context of things, getting any points kn Santiago, Montevideo, Argentina, or Brazil is a plus. But I am also not excited with the team. I want to see progress. That means reaching a Copa Final, beating the likes of Chile and Uriguay away. Getting some points from Brazil, etc. I understand we are bot France or Brazil, but I want to see some growth. That's all I'm saying and so far I have not seen any.
The team is growing up also has to do that we have experienced players playing at a high level who have been through this already, that doesn't really have anything to do with the manager. If you take our talent and throw it out there and let them sort it out you'll still win some games but you won't come anywhere near your true potential. Our squad at the game and pool to call up is waaay better then Chile's and has way more potential tactical variations with style of players. CQ is super rigid in the formation and style he wants to play and yet he didn't call up any other attacking wide players other then Muriel and had no other creative back up other then James. Roger and Cucho would have been better options to substitute Muriel then Morelos, if he had a Munoz he could have put him at RB and moved Cuadrado into Muriels spot. We've looked good when we've scored first or have had room to counter and attack under CQ, the games where we haven't or have been behind we've struggled to create chances and control the game. Chile press like mad usually, so they will leave spaces wide to compress the field around the ball, you punish that by having options to switch and punish 1v1 in wide positions and the only guys we had who can do that were either subbed at 55 minutes because of a poor game or playing RB (poorly) because the coach didn't think ahead or have a plan on who to call next down the line. Every manager during Covid is going to have a tough time with call ups and people not being able to travel, you better do your homework and scout the Colombian league and fringe players to have the proper squad, if not what the hell are we paying him for lol.
The 4-3-3 is extremely flexible as we've already seen. The back four can swing to a 3-4-1-2 with a back 3 which is essentially what we were doing with Medina, it can be a 4-3-1-2 and vice versa. Its all about the type of players you have to tweak the formation, if you don't have wide attackers though you can never really tweak it that much effectively, I really don't understand how he could go into qualifiers without seeing that issue, its almost the one type of attacker you always need to change games. We played a lot better in the second half partially because simply put the more time we have vs that Chile the more likely we are to get control of the game because they are not super good right now, but also we started pressing and playing with urgency and forced Chile to be passive and not be on the front foot and they made mistakes. No idea why that wasn't the way we played from the get go, we can only sit back and wait for mistakes so long, we would be better off going out and trying to force them our team is deep enough without any major holes and with a good defense that we don't have to sit back and protect a weak back line.
This is a sign to me to call up Daniel Munoz, and Johan Mojica needs to step it up, or I will rip him a new one on the next bad game. Alzate what a talent.
We are growing but next World Cup is not far away and before you know it, we will be parting ways with Cuadrado/James/Ospina with Falcao gradually being phased out. And then the rebuilding process will start all over again. The future does look bright with guys like Barrios/Davinson/Yerry/Díaz/Lerma/Alzate carrying the torch to 2026
I think you're right on point, but I'm going to throw one more caveat, that probably was workable but makes the call up more difficult: Many players could not travel because of the COVID19 issue (Uribe, Diaz, Yairo, Chara), all of them fitting the needs that arose yesterday after Medina's injury. I don't watch the FPC so much to know all the options, but my perception is that if we are considering to call MLS players, there's probably not many options there. Thinking of the glass half-full/half-empty dilemma, I think that Colombia really showed some heart and at the same time, we did it in a very un-colombian way, more with grit than actual play. The problem is that for that growth to show, some additional quality has to be found. We have more or less maintained the level from 2014-2018 in defense and midfield, with many new players, and we have kept a good attack on the late surge of Zapata and Muriel, but there are not that many players under 23 that are stepping in to bring new dimensions to our team. And after 2022, with Ospina, Cuadrado, James and Falcao being near the end of their careers, will mean that we need to get fresher talent, that is not yet in sight. Except Cucho.
james is slow. Always has been. I don’t see age being a factor. He could also go to Italy and extend his career greatly or to a smaller team in Spain Atalanta or Sevilla would be perfect. After 2022. He could replace Gomez at Atalanta. Ospina is a goalie so being 35 isn’t a huge deal but I hope that Montero develops into something great and we start giving young Colombians more of a shot. That 33+ year olds from other countries Falcao has gotten replaced doubt he will go to Qatar if Borre, Cucho or Luis Suarez develop. Also it’s 2 years away hopefully 5 more better players come along like I love James more than anything. Would yo gay for the dude. But seriously if we can find 5-6 mfs better than him for 2022. Just think how incredible our Nt would have to be.
Cucho would have scored a hat-trick yesterday. He is our little Chihuahua that would have been an alpha to those little Chilean Chihuahuas. Seriously, I think that the fresher talent will involve him, Sinisterra, Suarez, Benedetti, Carrascal, and many guys who we have not even talked about who nobody knows about except for maybe Baal88 who scouts young talent.
This right here was my biggest problem. Fine, don't call up wingers, but then don't stick to a 433 when you take out Muriel and replace him with a back playing on the wing or with a 9 like last night. Morelos was just as quiet, if not moreso that Muriel in that position for a reason.
I just rewatched the game and my lord was Cuadrado horrible. Easily the worst player on the field last night. Bad in midfield, as RB, so where exactly does he well? I don't see any of these issues when playing with Juve. And this whole Colombia is growing, I'm not buying it, like pepino said it's not the first time they obtain a result through pure will. If it weren't for Falcao's game tying deflection with 2 minutes left, the tone today would be very different. With that being said, very happy for the point, but I find it difficult to trust Queiroz and his decision making.
Cool. If they don't wave off the second Lerma goal? Because nothing from our side would change. And if the ref just bothers to look at the replay...we are probably celebrating a come from behind win away against a bitter rival. Am not trying to defend Quieroz but also feel like there was a major overreaction to about a third of a game where a good opponent shook us up - and those things happen. (Overreaction in terms of our own fans insulting our own players, not that the play was poor in that period). And I think the point on our team having grown up a ton is real - irrespective of the tactics and Quieroz.
Bro that’s a whole ‘nother topic right there, and we saw it all throughout this match day is the problem with the var. Why wasn’t our disallowed goal looked at like Chile’s penalty? They’re not using var correctly, especially in South America. Like in football, every scoring play should be looked at automatically if any discrepancies exist, it shouldn’t be up to the refs discretion. Some plays they look at, while others they just simply ignore, why? Peru got hosed last night too.
Guys that goal being allowed or not changes nothing imo. We did not create good clear cut chances, that was a chance from a set play which is good and obviously we got fouled a lot near the attacking third but our problem for a while has been that we haven't consistently created solid chances from open play. And the VAR team did look at the goal, the ref had a good view and its a judgement call, you can't touch the goalie in their 6 yard box and our attacker clearly did, lots of refs will give that as a foul and by the letter of the law there is an argument. from 2014-2018 after the World Cup we played rather poorly but eeked out the points by the skin of our teeth quite often and we regressed from the 4 years before where we made great strides. Our squad is better then that cycle but if keep papering over the problems by getting set pieces and opponents mistakes we'll get the same disappointment in 2022 and the COPA's. We need to fix our midfield and ball possession and imo we need to implement a good press to utilize our athleticism and and quality all over the field. I think Alzate could really help, Diaz and Mina healthy and some other guys progressing give us all the weapons (Cantillo also great for a deep playmaker) but the manager needs to really get this team to another level and I'm not sure he can do it.
I'm gonna chime in on the growth discussion real quick. As Pep and others have mentioned, Colombia has made strong come backs and showed personality in tough matches before. This is not new. However, I was content with the final result last night because this match presented whole 'nother levels of diversity. Medina going down so early was ridiculous. You have to be ready for subs and injuries, but when our other RB went down in the previous match this created a gigantic shift in play style. We were playing an adequately physical game against a very physical side, and losing Cuadrado in midfield stifled that. Then, Chile didn't just score, they got a totally accidental penalty (always demoralizing) and a 2nd gol that came in within minutes. Rarely does that level of chaos not get repeated again in match. We had a perfectly legitimate gol taken away. Very demoralizing. And all through that, NOBODY got carded in the entire 2nd half while Chile were getting carded left and right. After all that, tying it in minute 91 was pretty epic. The guys kept their cool when most fans did give up at half time. Admittedly, I kept hope until around minute 85... So, I'm proud of this result. Now, the coaching decisions...that's another story...
To be fair, we created good clean chances against Venezuela. Even though this was the same lineup, I think the tactic, in the first half, was a different one. You saw it on our gol. Medina pressed like a mad man to make that interception and cross. Cuadrado and Lerma were pressing like hell, too. The idea, to me, seemed to be that we were trying to out-Chile Chile. Having to put Cuadrado at RB destroyed our whole pressing game, eliminated our physicality in midfield and solidity on the flank. Things were working relatively well prior to that. Of course, I think we should definitely push to play more of a possession-based game, like you said, and incorporate guys like Cantillo and others to make that happen. But personnel issues (mainly the fault of our coach) damaged the performance last night more than the tactics themselves, in my opinion.
Chile seems to own him. I can't remember him playing well against them in any cycle. He either plays bad or is neutralized because they do not fall for his bag of tricks or lazy leg juke moves. Against Uruguay though I think will be another story. I think they will have problems defending him in transition similar to Venezuela last match.
If every play would get reviewed then James probably could have gotten a red on his tackle on Sanchez. So I sometimes the breaks go in our favor and sometimes they do not.
Chile is a really bad match up for Cuadrado, he holds the ball and doesn't move it quickly. The Chileans want you to hold the ball so they can swarm you and get the ball off you, also if you're not moving the ball quickly and punishing them for their aggression by making them chase the ball around you are letting them off the hook. There was a situation when Cuadrado had an easy pass to play out with two Chile players closing him down on the sideline (the worst place to get caught on the ball because the sideline is effectively another defender) and rather then make the pass he absorbed the pressure. Some times Cuadrado can be great, but in midfield or deep against Chile I don't think its a good matchup for him.