Boring is that guy who says “I told you so”, or “I already knew”.
Well, I warned you and I already knew, just like how annoying I am. Very.
Let the rare reader reread what was recorded here in last Monday’s column (9): “On Wednesday (11), in Doha, Qatar, Botafogo will face the undefeated Concacaf champions, the Mexicans of Pachuca , already eliminated from the Mexican Championship. They arrived at the stage of the once again called Intercontinental Cup on Friday and will be up to date, unlike the Brazilians, who will fly for 15 hours and arrive in 48 hours. hours before the game, with six hours of jet lag to take away from our bodies and minds. The best thing would be to thank the invitation and decline, something unthinkable, as we know, in the athlete grinding machine of the world football calendar”.
Well, there was no other way.
Only those who ignore minimal notions of physiology minimize the challenge posed to the Brazilian and Libertadores champions.
In the 75th game of the season, the fifth in 16 days, after beating Palmeiras, in São Paulo; Atlético Mineiro, in Buenos Aires; the International, in Porto Alegre; after the flash party in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the national title after beating São Paulo, the team travels to Qatar, arrives on Monday night and enters the field for 48 hours with a six-hour time difference to overcome, in addition from rival Pachuca, for a month only focused on the game and in Qatar since Friday, jet lag already overcome.
Then there are those who say that it is the obligation of athletes to overcome such obstacles precisely because they are athletes. It’s the opposite: exactly because they are athletes they need to be on their hooves to produce, because reflexes suffer, the head feels, the legs are missing, no matter how much desire they have.
“Ah, but the Botafoguenses themselves, like coach Artur Jorge and captain Marlon Freitas, said that tiredness was not an excuse, that Pachuca played better.”
It’s obvious!
They presented tiredness as an excuse and they would be accused of presenting tiredness as an excuse.
Need to draw?
Fatigue is not an excuse, it is a justification.
Getting through the quarter-finals of the Intercontinental Cup was even more difficult than beating Real Madrid the following Wednesday, time zone left behind, fatigue scientifically managed.
But there are always those who say they play naked at noon and don’t complain.
It’s difficult to argue with those who think like this, flat-earthers of football in particular, and sport in general, the same people who disdain altitude, probably because they’ve never been subjected to discomfort.
The Botafogo team was subjected to a superhuman test and proved to have no Superman.
Maybe I should have gone in with the starting team and tried to resolve the game in the first half?
Maybe, it’s easy to say now, without having seen the exams of Marlon Freitas, Savarino and Almada, probably saved for the second half, when the opponents would be more worn out and the trio could play as equals.
There are only two certainty: it is cowardice to demand from someone what someone cannot give; Brazilian football has not imposed itself for a long time.
Since 2012.
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