Everything is magnified when the results do not turn out as expected. What for some is normal, for others is suspicious. And in the case of the Colombian National Team, everything is, when in the intermission they add seven games without scoring and they have one foot out of the World Cup in Qatar.
Now the debate is again about the decisions of coach Reinaldo Rueda, who has become a slave to his words by first assuring that to be in the team “you don’t have to be 100 but 500 percent”, and then failing to comply with those words by summoning multiple players who wouldn’t be in that range.
Examples? Wilmar Barrios, who was out for more than two months due to the break in the Russian League before the double date against Peru and Argentina; Víctor Cantillo, another with about two months without activity due to rest in Brazil; Yimmi Chará, on vacation in the MLS. And so, same situation in different calls.
And why is it being talked about now? Because other regulars in the national team were left out of the last call despite having made good previous performances in Qualifiers. As was said, the absences of Yairo Moreno and Carlos Cuesta would have to do with a lack of continuity and not with injuries or covid 19 or something similar. At least that was speculated and that was confirmed by one of the protagonists.
Cuesta spoke with Win Sports and, although he wanted to defend the coach, he ended up putting him back in the middle of the controversy: “normally, if a player arrives with a few minutes, the coach looks at others, so it was very difficult for me to get back into rhythm at the beginning of the year, but I’ve already added minutes, although I don’t know if I’m the undisputed starter because he’s a coach who likes to rotate,” he said.
Cuesta made a good couple with Yerry Mina and many praised Rueda’s decision to bet on him despite his youth. But he disappeared at a key moment. It was due to lack of minutes, obviously. But why was this rule of continuity applied to him and not others?
“My desire to be in Qatar says it all. One is in the club day-to-day, but you look at the calendar and expect the time to come to be able to be in the national team, participate and achieve that classification that seems difficult But it’s not impossible,” he added. But it was not possible.
There is an exact month to go before the duels against Bolivia and Venezuela, matches that must be won so that the very tenuous mathematical option of qualifying for the World Cup makes any sense. But every day there is a new rumour, a comment, a question. “Although I want to be in my first World Cup and many of the players who are currently in that process also want to be in Qatar, that illusion remains until the last day,” Cuesta concluded. And the last day will be March 29. Until now there will be time to reflect and decide well. 500 percent is not a conviction … except to measure the effort in those last two games.
