Uruguay Win Historic Match

September 6th, 2008 | By: Juan | No Comments »

¨Suffered like always, won like never before¨. That was one of the headines that people in Uruguay read the morning after their historic win in Colombia. La Celestecame in to El Campín in Bogota with lots of doubts. They had come out on top of Los Cafeteros in the previous two World Cup qualifiers and would like to make it three in a row. Still they were the team that applied their tactical concept much better on the pitch. They were able to make it a very positive result as they win for the first time ever in Colombia 1-0. Villarreal’s Sebastián Eguren beat the mark of Fredy Guarín and slammed home a header in the 14th minute.

Uruguay Executing or Colombia Playing Bad?

¨When we lost to Brazil in Sao Paulo, we beat Brazil in all aspects of the game and still lost. We didn´t attribute that to luck. I don´t think that our win here should be looked at the same way.

Oscar Washington Tabárez´ face contorted with anger when the Colombian media insinuated this, yet his tone of voice remained the same. He was right in the aspect that his team responded wen they needed to the most. The entire team had to be commended as everyone did what they needed to do tactically to neutralize Colombia´s attack.

The game as whole was not as exciting as the media advertised. Oscar Washington Tabarez’ team executed the gameplan to perfection. The most compliments should be given to Charrúa backline as they swallowed up both Radamel Falcao García and Hugo Rodallega. The Colombian offense for the most part was moribund as Giovanny Hernández did nothing during the 90 minutes that he was on the pitch. Once again he proved that his level of play will always put him in the category of great club player. His time with the national team is up. Between both defensive Diegos- Godín and Fucile- the scoring tandem of Falcao and Rodallega were shut down. Rodallega would have the clearest opportunities on goal only to be denied by goalkeeper Juan Guillermo Castillo. For the most part they were both sucked up in the pitch and never were to be seen again. Even with Macnelly Torres giving them a spark off the bench, it was not enough to bother Castillo´s goal in the second half.

Jorge Fucile (who will not suit up against Ecuador after being booked) and Bruno Silva pushed up in the wings in order to help out Maxi Pereira and Cristian Rodríguez with their responsibility of stopping the advancement of Camilo Zúñiga and Estiven Vélez (who was absolutely horrific at left back). These two were going to be vital in the Colombian attack. They were, Zúñiga especially, the ones that would speed up the attack and open up spaces in order for Falcao and Rodallega to run free in the middle. Tabárez sacrificed the attacking ability of Rodríguez in order to have him stay in front of Zúñiga. The coaching staff knew that the Siena defender is at his best when he has room to run and has to beat a player to the ball.

The Goal
All week long Jorge Luis Pinto set up his defense on matchups based on size and set pieces. He took out José Amaya in favor of former Danubio and River Plate midfielder Carlos Sánchez. He practiced set pieces and defending them for the majority of practice during the week. He stressed to the media and his players that Uruguay is a threat in the air. Apparently his players did not listen. Estiven Vélez gifted away a ball in his end of the pitch as Luis Suárez pressured from the left side of the pitch and forced it out for a Uruguayan corner. Sebastián Eguren would then prove Pinto right whipping Fredy Guarín and skying for the ball all by himself. His header was more than perfect, it was textbook. It was the way anyone would teach a kid how to do it. He met it at its highest point, headed downward. Not bad for a player making his debut in World Cup qualiying play. The ball bounced in front of a helpless Agustín Julio. For those of you watching the game on television, you did not hit the mute button by accident. ¨El Campín¨
was THAT silent. It was the dagger that did not kill the beast, but it surely began the hemorraging.

By the end of the game, Colombia´s hopes were getting as dim as the lighting on their end of the field. With ever ensuing attack, they would only get to three-quarters of the field and resorted to diving in order for Brazilian referee Leonardo Gaciba to call a penalty. This was not going to happen. In their desperation, they also allowed for Uruguay to take advantage of the holes that they left in their backline. Late subs Álvaro González and Vincente Sánchez were not able to take advantage of errors that Colombia made as Agustín Julio and Diego Forlán´s teammate at Atlético, Luis Amaranto Perea, became almost providential saviors in the end. They were still able to give Uruguay the next best thing to a goal- possession deep in the darkness of the Colombian end of the field.

For Uruguay it was a historic win as the reaction of the team. More importantly they catapult themselves into third place over their direct rivals and now await Ecuador at the mythical Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. For Colombia, it´s back to the drawing board as they head to Santiago against an amped up Chile side. The Colombians, after being in the driver´s seat in third place and with a lost to Chile could find themselves in eighth place by the time matchday 8 finishes. So much for it being a lucky number.

Colombia 0-1 Uruguay
URU: Eguren (14′)

Game Highlights