Coach Dorival Júnior did not want to give dimension to the absence of Vini Jr in the game next Saturday (6) against Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the Copa América. The forward received a yellow card, the second in the competition, early in the match on Tuesday (2) against Colombia, in California. He was punished after a foul on James Rodriguez.
For Dorival, whoever enters in Vini Jr’s place will be able to have a great game. The coach explained that the match against Colombia was very important because it defined the position of the two teams in Group D and that, therefore, he took the field with the maximum force, not worrying about resting starters.
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With the 1-1 draw, Colombia finished first in Group D and Brazil second. In the quarterfinals, Colombia will face Panama.
“It’s a situation that happened, it’s part of the game. It was a very important game and I couldn’t hold anyone back at a time like this. What we wanted was the result. We started the game very well and, incredibly, on the first play, which to me was casual, we ended up with Vinicius’ yellow card,” said Dorival.
He demanded the award of a penalty to Vinícius Jr when Brazil was winning the match 1-0. In the play, Muñoz hits the Brazilian player inside the area. After being analyzed for minutes by VAR, the play was considered legal.
“At that moment it would have been 2-0. A 2-0 scoreline, with the speed we have, with the team we have, regardless of things not going the way we would like them to, would be very different from a 1-0 result. And shortly after we ended up conceding the equalizing goal. It was (the non-awarding of the penalty) decisive.”
According to him, if Brazil had managed the 2-0 scoreline, Colombia would have been disorganized on the field.
“There I have no doubt that the movements of the match would have been different. The Colombian national team would have had to expose themselves more. Perhaps we could take advantage of a situation that we know like no one else how to play, which is precisely that of having transitions facilitated by the speed and technique of our team.”
Training
After the draw, the players who played less than 45 minutes or did not enter the match trained on the pitch of the Levi’s Stadium on Tuesday. Technical coordinator Juan and assistant coach Pedro Sotero led the activity, held after the game.
