In the last few hours, the Bolivian national team announced the last-minute call of the experienced Cerro Porteño striker, Marcelo Martins, for the last two games of the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifier. The team began its preparation on Friday with the novelty of who is currently the top scorer of the qualifiers and is preparing to face Colombia on March 24, and Brazil on March 29.
The player confirmed the news on his social networks, but only published that he will play against the Brazilian team in La Paz. That's right, Martins will only be able to play in one of the matches corresponding to this last date of the qualifying tournament, due to card accumulation. In the last match of his team, the captain of La verde was reprimanded in addition time. Bolivia fell to Chile 2-3 on that day. That is, even if it has been summoned at the last minute, it will not be possible to measure itself before the coffee squad.
The attacking route was not part of the initial payroll given by César Farías two weeks ago, as the Venezuelan coach had made the decision to call more youth players instead of the usual names in recent matches. While it is true that the team no longer has a chance of qualifying, it was not understandable that Martins, with his ten goals, was not present in the outcome of the contest.
The Bolivian is closely followed in the scorers table, Argentine Lautaro Martínez, who scored Colombia on the last date, Brazilian Neymar, recently eliminated from the Champions League with his team, Paris Saint Germain, and Uruguayan Luis Suárez, with a good present with Atletico Madrid, who will play in the quarterfinals of the European tournament against Josep Guardiola's Manchester City.
Most of the players called are already concentrated in La Paz and underwent the respective protocol tests to detect possible Covid-19 infections, as reported by the Bolivian Football Federation. The matches they will face are nothing more than a compromise for them, as there is no return to their bad results, which is why Farías will be removed from office at the end of the double date. The Venezuelan did not achieve the requested objectives.
Can Colombia trust itself against the Bolivian team?
Of course not. The worst possible scenario for the team led by Reinaldo Rueda would be to add a new defeat. This would seal the removal of the team. A draw would not be enough, if Chile and Peru lost in their respective games, and it would not be useful to us by a rout. The only option is to win. Colombia would add 3 points and would be 20, one point behind Peru. For luck to take effect, we would also need Peru not to add up to 3, and hopefully it would not add up, since it would make the numbers much more complicated, and for Chile to be defeated to maintain its 19 points.
The failure of not having scored at least 4 points on the last knockout date has meant that Colombia no longer depends solely on itself. Even if the two remaining matches are won, Chile and Peru would need not to score points. Today, coffee growers have 17, two points behind the southern team, and two points above Bolivia. If La verde won, in addition to being able to end it all for good, it would go on to occupy the seventh place that the national team has today and could even have a chance of reaching sixth if everything lines up.
One hope for Colombians seems to lie in the Uruguayan national team. If the charrua team succeeds in winning their two matches, against Peru and Chile, our direct rivals, they would add 28 units and seal their ranking, allowing us to act with less pressure, because at least we would have those points in favor. Of course, it would be useless if we tied or lost. The only possibility for Colombia is victory and crossing fingers so that the other results are achieved.
Will we get the long-awaited classification?
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