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It was a blow to the soul. That's what Cali America fans felt exactly 30 years ago, on October 31, 1987. Many of them did not realize immediately because at the end of this match, in Santiago de Chile , the light went out in good part. from the country. Before the breakdown, the team had equalized with Peñarol, in the decisive match of the Copa Libertadores final. At the minute 120 with 28 seconds, Diego Aguirre scored the goal that gave the title to the Uruguayan club.
The absurd things of the regulations in force at the time in Libertadores. If there were draws, if a team had a better goal difference, it was mandatory to play an extra match on neutral ground. America had won 2-0 in Cali.
In Montevideo he fell 2-1. That's why we had to go to Chile, in an unfavorable environment. The regulation changed the following year …
Between the match in Montevideo and that of Santiago, there was barely three days difference.
"The flight that led Peñarol to Santiago arrived in the morning and they had us all at the airport for a day. The Uruguayan authorities told us that the plane that was going to take us had mechanical problems, "recalled Escobar Escobar in 1996, as he was preparing to play another final of Libertadores, this time against River.
"We had to sleep at the airport, while the pbadengers could not believe we needed to set the title of the Cup in a few hours," he added.
It was a brave match, in which there were more shots than football. America was champion with the tie: the difference in goals was worth. The American technician was Gabriel Ochoa Uribe, who bet him that last. To the point that, after 80 minutes, he was only making his only change: he was coming out of his center, Ricardo Gareca (identical to the DT of Peru) and put in his place, and played, a central defender, Enrique Simón. esterilla
"Ochoa never sent me to court to attack, but to defend the 0-0 that gave us the Cup. Plus, someone at the bank even put a piece of tape on me. The Technician said to me, "Whenever you touch or watch the band, remember that you have to hit the opposing goal or break the ball," Esterilla recalls. .
Ochoa never sent me on the field to attack, but to defend the 0-0 who gave us the Cup
At this point in the match, Paraguayan Roberto Cabañas, one of the team's main characters, who also scored goals in Cali and Montevideo, was sent off with rival José Herrera. Cabañas wanted to take advantage of all available resources, sports and non-sports, to resist the draw. He threw balls on the ground.
"I felt that my teammates would not support this game.Unfortunately, they expelled me and I tried to save time, but nothing does it." Maybe it was irresponsible; We have ten men left. If that had been the case, things would be different, "Cabañas said in an interview published in the newspaper El TIEMPO after his death on January 9.
There was an extension. There were nerves. America has endured as much as it could and Peñarol has not surrendered. Aguirre has changed the story.
"It's something that is intuition, it does not give you time to think and less than 120 minutes of play, when you're exhausted, you do not reason well … You do it instinctively. conditions and when and when you react, the goal was already, "Aguirre told this newspaper in 2009.
"I remember losing the final in 1987 when I saw my clbadmates crying and breaking glbades in the bathrooms. I walked away to think about why God did not give me the opportunity to give this title to Colombia, "Cabañas said.One day, already being together in Boca, the master Oscar Washington Tabárez – then the Peñarol DT – said to me: "When you were expelled, I knew that I had won the Cup." It was sad, " he added.
That day, there was a power outage in Colombia. And America was the light at the worst moment: she played three consecutive finals of the Cup, lost all three. But he was still far from living the recent hell: in 1987, there was no B.
JOSÉ ORLANDO ASCENCIO
Sports sub-publisher
On twitter: @josasc
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