Gustavo Costas' fiery blast at his players after Racing draw v Aldosivi | OneFootball

After the draw in Mar del Plata, the coach was blunt at the press conference and demanded greater commitment: “We can’t play like this”

Far from easing the pressure caused by the poor run of form, Racing’s draw against Aldosivi deepened the internal crisis within the Academia squad. Coach Gustavo Costas did not hide his disappointment after the 1-1 in Mar del Plata and delivered one of his harshest self-criticisms after the match on the fifteenth matchday of the Torneo Apertura.

From his very first words at the press conference, Costas made the tone of his assessment clear. “It was one of the worst matches since we’ve been at Racing. You can’t play a match like that. We let everyone down. The fans who came to support us despite having lost three straight matches gave us extraordinary support,” said the 63-year-old coach.

In his analysis after the draw, Costas avoided answering questions and chose instead to send a direct message to his players. “We can’t play like this. We’ll see how we move forward. We’ll talk to them. I told them at halftime: it’s not a tactical problem; it’s an attitude problem,” he said about the team’s main shortcoming of the day.

Racing’s situation in the Torneo Apertura became more complicated after this result, as the draw against Aldosivi keeps uncertainty alive over its qualification for the round of 16 from Zone B. The Avellaneda team has put together a string of below-par performances, and after three consecutive defeats it sits among the top eight with 19 points, level with Barracas Central, its next opponent on matchday 16.

Costas drew a distinction between this match and the previous ones. “We were coming off three losses. And if you have to lose, you’d rather lose the way we lost those three matches: leaving everything on the pitch and being better than the opponent. In those three we lost because we made stupid mistakes that were costly and because football has those things, but we gave everything and showed something different,” the coach said, defending the effort shown in previous defeats.

The draw in Mar del Plata not only extends a negative run, but also lays bare the coaching staff’s concern over the squad’s attitude. “Today we weren’t creating anything, we weren’t winning contested balls,” Costas lamented. “This is not the team I want. And I told them that at halftime. We’ll see how we continue. I’m sorry, but I feel awful because of the disastrous match we played,” he concluded.

The self-criticism was shared by the squad’s leaders. Bruno Zuculini did not shy away from responsibility after the poor performance. “We’re angry because we can’t allow ourselves to do this when we had three matches left, three finals, and we had to get all nine points to make the playoffs. Being such a big team, we have obligations, and today we fell completely short,” said the Academia midfielder.

“The matches we lost before were hugely important, but I think the way we played them was different, always creating plenty of scoring chances. But today we have to take responsibility, face the music, and win the next two matches we have left at home and the cup games,” Zuculini stressed, after the burden of having lost the derby against Independiente and to River. Added to that is the recent defeat in the Copa Sudamericana against Botafogo. The Academia’s situation in Zone B still allows it to hope for qualification, but the margin for error has been reduced to a minimum.

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