Football players constantly go from attacking to defending and vice versa during the course of a match, almost simultaneously. The two phases of the game, defense and attack, co-exist and are interdependent. When you attack, you must be prepared to defend, and when you defend, you must have devices ready to attack.
Pep Guardiola says it much better than me: “Offense and defense are the same. You defend well, you attack better. If you attack better, you are more aggressive without the ball. You cannot divide them; You can’t talk about those two things unless it’s at the same time.”
This introduction, in my opinion, explains the biggest tactical error of the Colombian U-20 team in the first half of their debut against Paraguay at the start of the South American category. Many times, more than recommended, Colombia was the victim of Paraguay’s dangerous counter-attacks, as they did not defend well in the attack. He did not react immediately in the zone where the ball was lost (recovery after loss); there was no close marking of those who were behind and temporarily did not participate in that attack (although the ball is far away, the game is played close); nor did it conduct a rapid withdrawal (re-establishment of defensive positions). The inaccuracies in the passes or the ball movements in the attacking phase, and this was the technical deficit, usually had none of these three actions to counter those counter-attacks.
Paraguay eventually won that first half 1-0 and managed to increase the result a few more times. The second leg was different. Colombia made two substitutions at the start of this game that improved possession, and supported that improvement and more consistent attacking attitude aggressively and orderly with the elements described above.
Paraguay did not counterattack again and Colombia, who found the equalizer in the first minutes with a great pass from Monsalve (from what was shown, he seemed to deserve a starter) on Luna, who defined impeccably, provided, was a territorial dominator , persevering, came dangerously close to rival territory and may even have been worthy of victory.
This version of the second half gives the Colombian fans more excitement for what follows in the tournament. And what follows is Peru, today.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
