National: Rengifo, Cardona and the criticism that surrounded Diego Arias’ night

Atlético Nacional beat América de Cali by 1-0 at its premiere in Group A of the Quadrangulars of Liga BetPlay in a match in which the coach Diego Arias ended up questioned for his decision to place Juan Manuel Rengifo on the wing alongside a centralized Edwin Cardona, two players who ended up “divert” attention of a key victory at the beginning of the semi-final stage.

The Green I was already coming from crushing the Scarlet in BetPlay Cup. They eliminated it with a resounding aggregate score of 6-3, making the differences between both teams clear.

With this recent positive precedent, the third chapter of this National-America took place at the Atanasio, and was very different from what was seen in the other domestic competition. Purslane was far from being that machine that won the game 4-1 and the visiting team learned from its mistakes, carrying out a much more solid and cautious plan against a local team that has a lot of offensive hierarchy.

One of the main changes within the local scheme occurred from the middle up. Holding the 4-2-3-1Arias opted for place Juan Manuel Rengifo on the outsidewho tends to be better accommodated by insidewith Hinestroza on the other side and Edwin Cardona centralized.

This determination not to play with a ‘natural’ winger on the left yes it caught attentioneven more so with players who could do it in that sector without having to make this positional change.

In development, Rengifo was not the same. More isolated, his interference in the game was minimal in the company of a Nacional that was not with all the lights on at the Atanasio.

Rengifo, a physical discomfort and the change that ‘disenchanted’ Atanasio Girardot

During the second half, when zero was still the protagonist on the scoreboard, Diego Arias replaced Rengifo at 60 minutess.

The reaction of a part of the Athanasius was to respond with whistlesmainly because they considered that the youth should stay on the field.

Immediately, Television cameras captured the Nacional talent sitting on the bench with ice on his anklewhich could explain Arias’ determination to support Cardona in the field, who In any case he was substituted at 72′.

After this change, and with Moreno already located by one of the gangs, Nacional broke the visiting resistance: Marlos sent the center and Uribe appeared by surprise to deflect the ball with a precise header.

Once the commitment is finalized, and the triumph consummated, Nacional fans showed general dissatisfaction with Arias’ initial decision to place Rengifo on the outside to leave Cardona as the first baseman, demanding his position from the coach..

What did Diego Arias say about Rengifo, Cardona and the change in Nacional vs. America?

Logically, The consultation with the Nacional coach did not take long to reach the press conferencewith several journalists asking about Rengifo and his location on the field.

“I understand that many times the outside analysis is done based on the result, but there are more elements to make a decision. We thought that the first change was ‘Titi’ because we needed a fresh player to create imbalance and we considered Edwin to be good for what the game required.. Later Marlos came in and we adjusted. Sometimes our decisions will coincide with what people thinkbut we always do it with the intention of improving the team,” answered the coach.

“We want ‘Titi’ to play as ‘Titi’. It is little time to explain but on a day-to-day basis we see that his characteristics can contribute a lot to the team in this position. He can play inside, as a midfielder and also on the outside starting from that position. He had a clear scoring situation from outside and we compensated with other players to attack from the wing. He has also had to play as a double ‘5’ in the defensive moment, but Yes, we consider it as an option to play outside for the next game.. We will see if it is him, Marlos or Bauzá, that brings us closer to winning,” he concluded about the youth position.