BARRANQUILLA, Colombia Oct 9 (Reuters) – The Colombian soccer team respects Brazil, but will seek to beat them at home to break their unbeaten record in the South American tie for the 2022 World Cup and maintain the possibility of qualifying directly to Qatar, said on Saturday the coach of the coffee team.
Colombia will host Brazil on Sunday at the Metropolitan Stadium in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, in a decisive match for the host team’s aspiration to qualify for the next World Cup.
“Always the disposition, the mentality is to add the three points,” Rueda said in a virtual press conference. “We are in this task of complying with the points that position us directly to the World Cup.”
“We are aware of the great kindness that our rival has in front, but also when we all enter a field we enter to win and we have to be intelligent, have a balance in the emotional, in the strategic and in all the behavior, in all the global that allows us to do that round game that we need to add what we want the three points to be, “added the Colombian coach.
Rueda assured that great intelligence, very good tactical application, as well as a very high concentration, order and character will be needed to achieve victory against Brazil.
Brazil, which has just beaten Venezuela 3-1, occupies the first place in the South American tie with 27 points, while Colombia, which in the last match drew goalless as a visitor against Uruguay, is fifth with 14 points.
The 64-year-old Colombian coach acknowledged that it is difficult to find a replacement for Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, who will miss the game against Brazil due to the accumulation of yellow cards.
“We have several alternatives, it is not the same as the hierarchy, the trajectory, everything that Juan Guillermo gives us is sure to be difficult to find,” Rueda said without mentioning names of possible replacements. “May the Holy Spirit enlighten us and we can decide as best we can.”
The coach admitted that his players are psyched to play well and win game by game, in a complicated and close tie in which there can be no advantages.
“Undoubtedly that is the requirement, that is the goal for all that qualification means, adding, adding and adding,” declared Rueda.
After Brazil, Colombia will host Ecuador on Thursday in another decisive match,
“Six points are at stake, we want those six points, we are going to play for those six points, that is the disposition of the entire team and that in the end we can continue to secure ourselves in a qualifying position in the table,” he concluded.
(Report by Luis Jaime Acosta via the Bogotá office.)