The thread broke again at the thinnest. Harold Rivera left the Santa Fe technical direction on Thursday night, after losing 0-2 against Nacional in El Campín, despite the fact that the team has two games left to seek qualification.
“One does not even take those measures, but touches. We must avoid problems and we do not want to generate violence. An inflamed rostrum was seen and charges were seen against the coach. There is no president or coach looking for bad results”, the president of Santa Fe, Eduardo Méndez, to explain the reasons for Rivera’s departure.
Several reasons can be attributed to the coach to explain why Santa Fe today depends on other results to qualify. For example, not stabilizing a roster, not having found a reliable goalkeeper (his starter, José Silva, was deleted after a serious mistake in the first classic against Millonarios) or the sudden deletion of some players, such as Iván Rojas.
Mauricio Moreno. TIME
The players are also to blame for the weak campaign
But it’s not all Rivera’s fault. For example, there is a factor that can explain the bad moment of Santa Fe, and it is the lack of efficiency. At the end of date 18, it was the team that made the most shots, 286, 16 more than the second, América.
However, his conversion rate was low: only 8 percent of those shots ended in goal. The leader of the League until Friday, Millonarios, made 82 fewer shots, not counting the game this Saturday against Boyacá Chicó and scored six more goals. His conversion rate is 14 percent.
In the other arch, his own, there is also an alert factor. Santa Fe was the second team with the fewest shots against the goal, after 18 dates. 60, one more than Boyacá Chicó. And if deflected and blocked shots are added, the figure is also low: 196, one more than Nacional.
The big problem is that many of those shots on goal ended in goals against, either due to individual errors or due to the opponent’s aim. Santa Fe has the highest goal-against conversion rate: 11.2 percent, matched with Deportivo Cali. They get little, but when they do, it’s almost always a goal…
There are individual performances in Santa Fe below expectations. The great work of Hugo Rodallega, who has put the team on his shoulders, has not been enough to compensate for the decline of others, such as Wilson Morelo, who even missed two penalties this season.
Others who returned lost their position and did not find space, such as Kelvin Osorio, who, according to press reports, reached an agreement to terminate his contract due to a lack of minutes.
Rodallega put his face after the defeat against Nacional: «He is not only the coach, out there it is said that he is cut by the thinnest thread and he is the head to cut, but it is clear that here the players cannot harm someone else’s case The responsability. We must assume, ”he said.
Santa Fe receives Huila this Sunday (8:30 pm, Win+), with Gerardo Bedoya as interim coach. The accounts still allow him to qualify, although when he goes out onto the pitch at El Campín he will already know what happened to the other rivals. Will it be enough to keep fighting?
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc