'Bolillo' Gomez was confirmed Colombia's new coach

Hernan Dario ‘Bolillo’ Gomez was appointed the new coach of the Colombian national team again after twelve years, when the country participated in the World Cup for the last time, when the tournament was staged in France in 1998. Gomez’s mission will now be to lead Colombia to the 2014 World Cup of Brazil.

‘Bolillo’ Gomez, 54, was officially named the coach of Colombia by the Executive Committee of the Colombian Football Federation and his assistant will be Leonel Alvarez, the actual coach of Independiente Medellin.

Former national team coach Francisco Maturana will overlook all of the happenings of Colombia’s different football categories. With this distribution of roles, the Maturana-Gomez partnership has returned. They were in charge of Colombia for the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.

Gomez’s first two matches as the coach of Colombia will be against South Africa and Nigeria in late May. It will be a good opportunity for Gomez to test players, looking ahead to the 2011 Copa America.

“The responsibility is very big and I will assume it without being frightened, and I expect unity, not the contrary, and the objective of everybody is Brazil 2014,” Gomez declared to the press.

“I’m not afraid. On the contrary I’m very happy, very proud, and yes, with a very big responsibility, not to leave anybody with their mouth shut,” he added.

Gomez sent Colombia to the 1998 World Cup and did the same with Ecuador in 2002.

At the conclusion of the 2010 World Cup Gomez will prepare Colombia for a mini-tournament which will include Mexico, Chile and Argentina, in Guadalajara in September. For Gomez it will be seen as ideal preparation for the 2011 Copa America.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

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Thirteen-time Colombian champions America de Cali are experiencing a major economical crisis as the club can’t afford to provide their players with the demands associated with a professional football club. America’s squad members have not been paid their wages for five months, and find it difficult to attend regular training sessions because of this.

For years America were controlled by brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez, but both of them are locked up in jails in the United States because of drug trafficking. Due to this they haven’t been able to pay their players.

It has come to the point that the club are contemplating the possibility of opening up an account to receive donations and funds from fans, or by organising raffles.

“Now is the right time to talk. They don’t pay us and now we don’t have food to eat,” claimed Uruguayan goalkeeper Alexis Viera, who recently made the headlines for saving two penalties and scoring the winner from the spot as his side beat Millonarios.

According to reports much of America’s struggles are due to the fact that many of the people who run the club are involved in drug trafficking and have been accused of obtaining large sums of cash received by the club for selling the rights of key players.

One of the supposed culprits, Miguel Rodriguez, was accused of keeping the equivalent of $4.5 million which came from player transfers. However, Rodriguez denied all claims.

America, four-time finalists of the Copa Libertadores, find themselves in 16th position of the 18-team Colombian first division, with only three wins from thirteen matches.

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The newly designated Colombian Football Federation has affirmed that their priority is to help Colombia qualify for the 2014 World Cup that will be staged in Brazil. The first step for the assembly will be to decide in April which coach will carry them to the World Cup. There are plenty of candidates to get things right for Los Cafeteros, who failed to qualify for the last three World Cups, those of 2002, 2006 and 2010.

Francisco Maturana is the prime candidate to take the manager´s position, while the future of Hernan Dario Gomez is unknown. Gomez rejected the chance to become the coach of Ecuador in order to keep alive his chances of coaching Colombia.

“The objective is to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and to be finalists of the U-20 World Cup of next year, which will be staged in our country,” stated Luis Bedoya, the new president of the Colombian Football Federation.

“Francisco Maturana will be confirmed as the manager of the national teams, a position which is required by FIFA, but we have yet to decide who will be the coach.”

“We didn´t value the name of Bolillo Gomez, but this doesn´t mean we have discarded him,” he concluded.

Colombia have made several modifications in an attempt to change the fortunes of their national team. It has been rumoured that the Colombian Federation will sign a deal with American sports brand Nike to supply them with their sporting gear heading towards 2014.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Atletico Huila drew 1-1 with Deportes Tolima, a result that was beneficial for league leaders Independiente Santa Fe and Atletico Nacional, who also fought out a 1-1 draw in round 4 of the semi-finals of the Colombian national championship.

Atletico Huila who reached five points, went ahead through Jeison Quinonez in the 30th minute, while Deportes Tolima, with two points, snatched a point thanks to Davinson Monsalvo in the final minute of the match.

Meanwhile, Atletico Nacional picked up a valuable point away to Independiente Santa Fe in front of 40,000 fans at the El Campin stadium in Bogota.

Giovani Moreno put Ramon Cabrero´s side ahead in the 46th minute, but Argentine midfielder Omar Perez earned Independiente Santa Fe a point with a strike in the 59th minute. With the result, both teams are now on seven points.

On Sunday, Independiente Medellin beat Real Cartagena 2-0 and Atletico Junior won 2-1 at Deportivo Pereira.

Jackson Martinez scored twice to give Independiente Medellin a comfortable victory. Martinez leads the scoring charts with 16 goals.

In Junior´s narrow win, Teofilo Gutierrez and Carlos Bacca converted. While John Charria scored for the visitors.

ROUND FOUR RESULTS

Group A

Independiente Medellin 2-0 Real Cartagena

Deportivo Pereira 1-2 Atletico Tolima

Group B

Atletico Huila 1-1 Deportes Tolima

Independiente Santa Fe 1-1 Atletico Nacional

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Jeison Murillo will make his dream move to Udinese of Italy from Deportivo Cali in the following days. The Colombian U-17 international was a vital part of the Cafeteros fourth place finish in the World Cup in Nigeria last month.

In five matches played in the tournament, the youngster was directly responsible for the fact that Colombia only conceded one goal. Murillo was also very strong when moving forward to the attack, particularly with setplays.

According to El Colombiano, details of the contract terms were not revealed but the club did mention that they received US$ 500 thousand in player development fees.  Murillo will join fellow countrymen Juan Cuadrado, Ricardo Chara, and Christian Zapata at the Bianconeri.

Murillo may not have been a key member of the Deportivo Cali squad, because of his young age, but he promises to be a star of the future with the Colombian national team, particularly because he is still in the maturing process.

Udinese have been very fond of young South American players in recent years, because they believe they have the necessary talent to break into the first team, after being given some tactical order.

Juan Arango

Southamericanfutbol.com

Atletico Junior and Deportivo Pereira for Group A, and Deportes Tolima against Atletico Huila for Group B,  recorded draws in the third round of the semi-finals of the Colombian Torneo Finalizacion.

Junior went 2-1 up against Deportivo Pereira, with goals from Braynner Garcia and Teofilo Gutierrez, with Carlo Preciado scoring for Pereira, but the match was stopped for twenty minutes because of a power failure.

When the game resumed, Uruguayan player Jorge Casanova earned Pereira a draw, which was their first point of the semi-finals.

In Group B, Deportes Tolima and Atletico Huila fought out a 1-1 draw. Rodrigo Marangoni scored for Tolima, while Frank Pacheco converted for Huila.

Also for Group B, Atletico Nacional crushed Santa Fe 3-0 with goals from Ezequiel Maggiolo,  Jair Iglesias and Giovanni Moreno.

For Group A, Independiente Medellin got the better of Real Cartagena with a 4-2 victory. Felipe Pardo converted a superb hat-trick and Luis Fernando Mosquera scored Independiente´s other goal, while Mauricio Arquez and Edward Jimenez converted for Real Cartagena.

Jackson Martinez is the league´s leading scorer with 14 goals. He is closely followed by Teofilo Gutierrez, with 13 goals.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Former Colombian international Faustino Asprilla believes that his national team´s problems would be solved if they were to hire Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. It is yet to be known whether the Colombian FA will opt for a foreign coach in March, but if they do Scolari would be at the top of their list.

Since Colombia were eliminated from the World Cup after a highly disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign when under Eduardo Lara, a number of possible candidates were mentioned, including a few foreigners.

Francisco Maturana, who took Colombia to two World Cups, in Italy and the United States, as well as guiding Colombia to the 2001 Copa America title, will be the designated chief of the national teams.

Asprilla, who is known for being very critical of the Colombian national team, understands that the side are not what they once used to be, and because of this he hopes they hire Scolari.

“If he is a foreigner hopefully he is Luiz Felipe Scolari. He would be the best possible coach for Colombia, and better now that he doesn´t have a team. We should already be talking to him. But they are waiting for there to be one week before the next World Cup qualifiers to start calling coaches,” Asprilla told Futbolred.

Asprilla added: “He is a winner [Scolari]. He was a world champion with Brazil, runner up in Europe with Portugal, he is a coach who knows a lot. As well, he won the Copa Libertadores with Gremio and Palmeiras. Hopefully he can come here to teach something to Colombian football.”

Colombia last qualified for the World Cup in 1998, but they couldn´t make any impact on the tournament.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Independiente Medellin edged Deportivo Pereira 2-1 with a last gasp strike, in the first round of the semi-finals of Group A of the Colombian Torneo Finalizacion. Atletico Junior also claimed an important victory over Real Cartagena on Saturday.

When it seemed that the match would end in a 1-1 draw, after goals from Jackson Martinez for Independiente and from John Lozano for Deportivo Pereira, Juan Esteban Ortiz appeared in the 92nd minute to give Leonel Alvarez´s side a boosting victory.

Independiente played great deal of the second half with ten men after goal scorer Martinez was sent off in the 52nd minute for violent conduct.

Martinez continues to lead the scoring charts with 14 goals.

In the derby of the coast, Atletico Junior beat Real Cartagena 2-0. Teofilo Gutierrez scored both of Junior´s goals in the second half, both from the penalty spot.

The striker has converted twelve goals this season.

Cartagena, who were down to ten men, had a great opportunity to pull a goal back, but Giovanni Garcia failed to score from the penalty spot.

In Group B, Atletico Nacional edged Tolima 2-1 and Santa Fe beat Atletico Huila 2-0.

Argentine Rodrigo Marangoni put Tolima ahead in the first minute, but goals from Giovanni Moreno and Ezequiel Maggiolo gave Nacional the victory.

On Wednesday, Nacional travel to Huila and Tolima play hosts to Santa Fe.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Independiente Medellin and Independiente Santa Fe, who finished first and second in the regular phase of the Colombian championship, will be seeded for the next phase of the competition, which was completed with the presence of Atletico Junior, Atletico Nacional and Real Cartagena.

Santa Fe thrashed Deportivo Cali 4-1 and finished with 30 points. They won the match courtesy of two goals from Yulian Anchico and others from Cristian Nazarit and Luis Manuel Seijas. Sergio Herrera scored Deportivo Cali´s only goal.

Atletico Junior beat Deportes Tolima 2-1 and qualified with 27 points. Freddy Grisales and Giovanny Hernandez converted for Junior, while Jorge Perlaza scored for the visitors.

Independiente Medellin drew 2-2 with Once Caldas in an entertaining game, and come into the semi-finals as one of the main title contenders.

Despite being crushed 4-0 by Boyaca Chico, Real Cartagena assured themselves of a place in the following round thanks to the three points won by Deportivo Pasto against Envigado.

Yhonny Ramirez, Antony Tapia, Charles Monsalvo and Miguel Caneo scored the goals.

Another qualifier was Atletico Nacional, who fought out a goalless draw with Deportivo Pereira.

Today´s four winners join Independiente Medellin, Atletico Huila, Deportes Tolima and Deportivo Pereira in the semi-finals phase of the Colombian championship.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com

Deportes Tolima qualified for the semi-finals of the Colombian Torneo Finalizacion, after beating America de Cali 2-0. But the same cannot be said of Atletico Nacional, who were held by league leaders Independiente Medellin.

Davinson Monsalve and Rodrigo Marangoni scored the two goals that gave Tolima, with 29 points, a place in the semis. They are the third team to have progressed after Independiente Medellin and Atletico Huila.

Meanwhile, Atletico Nacional could only afford a goalless draw with Independiente Medellin, and with 26 points risk missing out on the semi-finals.

Ramon Cabrero´s team travel to Deportivo Pereira in the final round of the championship next week, and are in need of a positive result.

In other matches, Deportivo Pereira beat Cucuta 1-0, Deportivo Cali defeated Chico FC 4-2, Once Caldas drew 3-3 with Envigado, Millonarios ousted La Equidad 2-0 and finally Deportes Quindio edged Atletico Junior 1-0.

The most successful teams in the Colombian championship are Millonarios and America de Cali, both with 13 titles. They are followed by Atletico Nacional, with 10 titles, and Deportivo Cali, with 8 titles.

Gregory Sica

Southamericanfutbol.com