James Rodríguez suffers from “slight” muscular problems. Juan Fernando Quintero has a “slight sprain in the median collateral”. Both would be given seven days of recovery, which would lead them very fair to a hypothetical call to the Colombian National Team.
And they were the secret, the key to open the goal in a team that has gone five games without scoring and that desperately needs a victory against Peru, on January 28, in Barranquilla. With two creatives, it was expected to fill the rival area with balls, break blocks, wreak havoc with deep passes to Díaz, Cuadrado, Muriel or whoever is number 9, break the curse and celebrate dancing again. Now the master plan hangs in the balance.
It is true that they can still appear in Reinaldo Rueda’s call, which will surely be known this Wednesday, but it was one thing to have Al-Rayyan scoring a double and handing out assists and River Plate’s next showing that inactivity does not hurt and scoring goal with the yellow shirt, and quite another to plan an absolutely definitive duel for qualification for the Qatar 2022 World Cup based on the doubts they generate at this time.
Without James and Quintero, should Rueda change the plan against Peru?
Yes, there are no replacements to match them
No, there is enough talent to replace them
Yes, you have to have more attack alternatives to win as it is
And if for some reason they are not, or if the DT believes that they need to reach the “500 percent” that he himself made so popular as a measure to reach the tricolor, who should replace them? Is it easier to try to find players with your characteristics or to throw away the initial plan and put together a new one, with different players and ten days before the whistle sounds?
Assuming time is short and the decision is to replace chip by chip, how many James and Quintero are on the radar to bet on? One would be Cardona, who arrived at Racing but still hasn’t played: the same doubts as the probable absentees. Others that Rueda has already tried would be Andrés Andrade (Nacional), with minutes against Bolivia but without subsequent calls, or Yaser Asprilla (Envigado), who comes from being the sensation in the friendly against Honduras or, in the worst case, even Santos Borré, who replaced James against Paraguay (0-0).
Who should be the creative replacements?
Another option would be to think of different players who open up space on the wings and fill the rival area with crosses, with two benchmarks in the area and even Yerry Mina trying to capitalize from above. Yimmi Chará did not do badly against Honduras; Cristian Arango is 9 in the MLS but he can also be a midfielder; Díaz and Cuadrado, the usual wingers know the job; Teófilo Gutiérrez, the one who forgot the last call, could lend a hand in the emergency.
Reinaldo Rueda’s decision will be known in a few hours, when the call is published. It depends on his wisdom that the Qualifiers are not an impossible mission.
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