Da Silva after América win: "We didn’t miss those who were absent" | OneFootball

América de Cali won its second game in the final quadrangulars of the Liga Betplay 2025-I, and leads group A alongside Independiente Medellín, after both teams drew in their debut.

The team led by Jorge Da Silva managed to recover from Junior's early blow, which had started winning before the two-minute mark, and ended up turning the game around with goals from Duván Vergara and Rafael Carrascal.

The maturity of this América de Cali

"We knew it was going to be difficult. Junior is a team with great transition capacity and unbalancing players," Jorge Da Silva began to analyze in the press conference. "But the group reacted with maturity. That goal forced us to immediately go out and look for the result," added the Uruguayan coach.

The red team took to the Pascual Guerrero with some significant absences, especially in the offensive zone, where they didn't have some of their main figures, such as Juanfer Quintero, Rodrigo Holgado, or Luis Ramos.

'Polilla' Da Silva considered after the game: "This group has been working for months for this. Some players waited for their moment, and today they took advantage of it with hierarchy. We didn't feel the absences, and that speaks to the commitment that exists".

For example, the location of Jan Lucumí as a reference in the attack area drew attention. Regarding this, the coach expressed: "Lucumí had already played in that position. With sacrifice, he understood what we needed and responded with delivery and criteria".

América ended up playing with Kevin Angulo, a 16-year-old youth player, in the attack: “That's what we had, and they did well. We're in a decisive phase, and everyone must be ready,” explained the coach.

América will play again in the quadrangulars next Saturday, visiting Deportes Tolima in Ibagué, with the same losses that remain in the team.

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

📸 JOAQUIN SARMIENTO - AFP or licensors