By Kevin Hartmann
Last Sunday, the Colombian league of Soccer witnessed the final game of its First tournament of the year. Atlético Nacional and Seguros La Equidad were the two attendees teams in the final. The first of them, Nacional, has a big history composed basically by titles and followers, and is from Medellín, the second largest Colombian city; and partly one of the most important capitals of production in the country. Equidad is a relatively new team in the first division of the Colombian league (since 2006) which has demonstrated to be one of the most regular and consistent teams in the professional league; Equidad is one of the three teams from the Colombian capital city, Bogotá.
In Colombia, the final is played in two different games on two different days. Each game is played at each team’s home city. In this opportunity, the first final went to Bogotá, in which Equidad won 1-0 and the second game was played this last Sunday in Medellín leading to a 2-1 game for Nacional, tying the series, and forcing to define itself by the penalty shots. Nacional eventually won the game because their Argentinian Goalkeeper, Gastón Pezzuti, stopped 3 of the 5 penalty shots from the Bogota’s team players.
Nacional celebrates their 11th title in the Colombian league with a fair campaign during the semester, in which they won 10 games, tied 3 and lost 5, putting them in the third place at the end of the regular season in which all the 18 teams from the league had to play against each other. Their coach, “Sachi” Escobar, has won two titles already in the Colombian league with Nacional; one in 2005 and the other one in 2011. Everybody in Colombia knows that Nacional has been able to have the best players on their team due to the amount of money the team gets. On the other hand, Equidad has been a team which has had the same coach, Alexis García, since they ascend to the first division of the professional league; and with him, there’s been a process of years, creating a shrewd style that is remarked and exalted by a lot of coaches in the league. In this final, Colombia witnessed a game between the economical power and the process of setting up a team throughout the years.
This time, the cup ended up in hands of the richest team. However, nowadays, in the Colombian Soccer league is demonstrated how the teams that have a defined course of action and projection with a coach, players and executives, are rising up and getting to phases such as the final games. The old prejudice about the richest soccer clubs being the most efficient, is getting completely obsolete.
