Minella and Vazzoler on Radio Gol before Copa Santa Fe clásico | OneFootball

Martin Minella and Nicolas Vazzoler discussed the Copa Santa Fe match that will be played tomorrow starting at 3 PM at Brigadier López between Colón and Unión on Radio Gol's microphones.

I always argue within the club that, for me, the league shapes you more than your own category or even the reserve. The reserve gives you the rhythm of the game, and the league or this kind of tournament gives you the experience. I always say that for someone like Matías Córdoba, it's beneficial to play in the reserve or against Colón de San Justo, where Baróni and Melgrati play. Arroyo seems to me that for the category, especially since he went to Colón, today the B national is much closer to that context than the AFA reserve.

Actually, we are facing nice problems because the other time the reserve tournament creates a new team, let's say, that new team is generated or organized with the best from each category. So, each category takes the best to compete midweek, and well, it's a nice problem, as I say, but it does slightly deplete the categories. So, compared to last year, it's much nicer because we play AFA juniors with the first team, the first reserve tournament, and well, for the kids, it's a competition like I say, AFA in juniors is Disney. Everywhere you go, you find football matches, generally in juniors, to win is always the best or the one who plays best that day, and it's different from these contexts you experience now in Reconquista or the league, where sometimes the fields, the lighting, or refereeing can be a bit more conditioning, some extra things to the strictly sporting. So, we are enjoying it a lot, but obviously, the context that our first team is in another category sometimes influences.

First, with Nico, we have a great relationship, well, also with his technical team because we understand that the way of working is quite similar or at least the idea of taking care of the kids and trying, aside from always wanting to win and do well in results, the truth is that we are happier with the kids reaching the first team than anything else. It's totally real, and I know they think the same as us, and nothing, we always fight for that, you know, and sometimes when they bring in a new player, it bothers you more than bringing in the number 4 from Lanús because you think yours is better, and well, that always happens in formative work. And regarding this match, the same, taking people away, let's say, for me, it's a huge lack of criteria. They already took away the preliminaries from the kids, which I think was something that the reserve preliminary match historically was something that, well, people knew the players the club had, and the kids played the second halves, maybe with 20,000 people in the stadium, and well, that ends up forming their character. And today, they play on a Wednesday morning with 40 or 50 people in a field, and well, now that it was the classic in a semifinal, the possibility of playing, I'm not saying with a full stadium, but with a nice context of people, not having people really takes away half of the beauty of the match.

Then Nico Vazzoler, Unión's reserve coach, joined the conversation and commented the following: Well, the first thing is that evidently, well, with Martin, we have a good relationship, many points that connect us. I think we share a way of walking the profession that ultimately generates many more points of encounter than of disagreement. I say it with sadness that it cannot be played with the public because the other day we talked about this issue with Martin, and well, it's this that he says, that our players need in their path, in their journey, in their formation, they need to go through these experiences and live the ability to play with the public, with a different setting. The match already has a different tension for being a classic and an extra pressure too, if you will, because it's a decisive match where the winner continues, and the loser is left behind. So, these are experiences they must go through to strengthen themselves as footballers, and not being able to do it is what should have been a celebration for the city's football. Above all, well, it makes me sad without going into the details and the reasons for the decisions, but the final decision does make me sad.

The example, I think, nationally could be the Cordobeses. It seems to me that the Cordobeses managed, being in the same country and the same sport and the same category, they play 3 or 4 classics, even a summer tournament with both audiences, and they have achieved it. I believe that nothing, it can be done, it should be tried, and as you say, normalize a bit playing among ourselves, let's say, because we are what I sometimes last year with me we had organized as soon as the year started to have a friendly match, I remember, and I tell you the truth, it was commented, and it doesn't always feel comfortable when I want to go home, sometimes it doesn't feel comfortable, it seems like you're saying something crazy, let's say, and it was a Tuesday morning without people, we were going to go, and well, then it couldn't be organized due to time constraints because they were already starting to compete.

But well, for me, it's something normal, but well, evidently, it's not lived like that at a political level, I don't know how the situation was.

In this, both coaches agreed in the same way. It's a shame, in this case, what I said before, not living it with sadness, and I would like this to be more normalized, ultimately almost like this conversation we are having. We also had to share with Martin and other colleagues of yours a nice moment, and well, one always thinks that the game and, in this case, the kids should be above everything, and also the possibility that people can participate in what should be a city football celebration. So, I have the same impression.

I love the cup because, as I said, the contexts help the kids a lot, and what we experienced in Reconquista, what was experienced in Tostado last year in Rafaela, nothing, it's something different from the day-to-day, different from AFA juniors, different reserve, and it shapes the kids' character, shapes their personality, makes them live situations closer to what they will experience in professional football. I recently mentioned the defenders of Colón de San Justo, I always have them as references, it is one of their main virtues to look for great defenders, and last year, well, this year Ratoti was there, and in Unión, who has now left, but that kid surely shapes more with that kind of defenders because the day he debuts, he will be marked, I don't know, playing with Racing, and he will be marked by Marcos Rojo, who is 36 years old and will give him a punch, a shove in a corner, and the kid if he only reaches with his formative stage of lower divisions, surely would not have lived it if he doesn't have this kind of context that we have with the league or with Copa Santa Fe.

We share the vision; for us, the cup is an extremely important competitive instance. It's a priority for our block. We feel we have the possibility with our block to represent the club, obviously, that already gives us an absolute importance, and tied to what Martin says, the kids live experiences that they don't experience anywhere else, and they have to live them, and not only because they are experiences they don't live in another scenario, they are necessary experiences for what's coming, what's coming in their next 20 years, hopefully 20 years of a professional career. So, we will always return to the same point of the cup; it's important that they live these experiences, they are decisive, they help us strengthen a lot of tools, and well, they fill that suitcase with the necessary experience to take the step to professionalism.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.