América de Cali lost 2-1 against Independiente Medellín in the first leg of the first phase of the Copa Sudamericana, at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellín. Those led by Juan Carlos Osorio did not have the best of nights, where they could have suffered a heavier defeat, if it were not for the poor definition of the locals and the interventions of Joel Graterol.
This was what the Risaraldense strategist analyzed at the end of the game: “those are the rules of the game and we have to assume them that way, we faced a great rival, they were superior to us, they beat us well. We still have the second leg where we hope to give a good account of our game and hopefully try to reverse and win the series”.
He talked about the change that the team had during the game and that the key is still open: “Today’s decision was to have one more midfielder in the first half, to recover and be an obstacle for the rival. In the second half, when we made the change and entered a linker we were superior, as a result of which the first arrival was a goal, then we were very cowardly in the way we handled the stopped ball from them and they managed to go ahead with that, a shot free. In open play the team competed well and we hope to reverse the series in Cali”.
In the end he highlighted what the team lacked: “when the interiors were able to occupy the zone squares we were superior and we had very good entries in the last third, unfortunately we did not have much relevance today in zone 14, we lacked it and we will try to modify it and to improve it for the next game.”
Juan Andres Arias-Arias
Correspondent Futbolred Cali
On Twitter: @AriasJuan_15
