Fernando Zuqui, who entered in the second half, tries to pressure a defender to leave / fotobaires
Uruguay, Special Envoys
First major test for Estudiantes and a defeat that leaves two faces as visible as the Río de La Plata. In attack he has interesting things and when he is finer in the final meters he will be able to feel calm. But the other side of the coin is his defense, with horrible setbacks on the wings and lack of concentration that left some doubts, the first since Abel Balbo was the coach.
He lost Pincha 3-2 in his match against Peñarol, a failed exam from which he will have to recover before January 27, when the moment of truth begins.
At the start, Estudiantes was more than Peñarol. Not a little more, much more. It was so uneven that it didn’t feel like two professional teams. Fast, spicy, uneven on the wings, with speed in the passes and all that combined. The first minutes of Pincha were a breath of hope for DT and for the fans.
Mauro Boselli appeared first to push the ball from the penalty spot, after a tremendous play by Leonardo Godoy on the right, who stepped on, faked and threw the cross. The fans of the visitor who arrived the second had not finished accommodating, to begin to make the local plate players nervous. The goal was a tremendous left-footed shot by Mateo Pellegrino from outside the area, during the period of the game where everything was golden for Balbo’s men. It seemed that a landslide was coming. Error.
The other side of the coin was seen in two minutes, almost instantly like a hamburger that is turned over to finish cooking. Between 17 and 19 minutes all the illusion turned into despair.
How can you commit so many distractions in such a short time? The first defensive shortcomings were evident, all on the sides and with marked disconnections. First came an overflow from the right to Godoy’s back for Rubén Bentancourt’s unmarked header at the far post, which Andújar saved first but was so alone that he was able to hit it again for the goal.
In the next play, Jorge Rodríguez delivered a ball back very badly and the gift was taken advantage of by Kevin Méndez, who faced one side and the other to step on the area and tie with a strong shot against the post before the defense looked on.
Time to review the reasons for the debacle: all the local attacks came by taking advantage of the recoveries in the systematic rises of the sides, who, having no natural wingers ahead, suffered horrors from setbacks. Thus the team was once, twice and even five times badly stopped. Added to that the doubts in each crossed ball, which had the corollary in the goal against Godoy after a cross from the left and his doubts for the rejection …
The good game and bold intentions lasted a while. Just over 10 minutes. Then an image was seen that undoubtedly must have worried the coach, who reached out for the second half in specific situations but set off alarms regarding a defensive system that would have many problems from now on if it does not correct the structural.
In the second half he tried to be the protagonist with possession of the ball. At first he was. It is that in attack this Estudiantes plays well and has arguments, the problem is when the ball becomes the rival’s and their players are left looking at their backs. So there will be more games that you will suffer than those that you will enjoy. For this reason, shortly after the start, Rollheiser burst the crossbar and Piatti almost leveled on the rebound, after touching the ball.
The DT tried to refresh the midfield with the income of Fernando Zuqui and Franco Zapiola. But the team did not find lucidity despite not going through any more defensive shocks. It is that basically Peñarol opted to defend itself more en bloc than to seek to liquidate the game and thus the game was within reach until the end. It could have been from Zuqui but it took him a second too long to define, or from Rollheisser from a free kick. Pincha could match it in any of those plays or in one of his approaches through the area. But he could not and so he will return to La Plata with the first warning that there are things that do not work like this.
With mistakes, true, but the game had everything: five goals, balls off the posts and plays canceled
