Buenos Aires, April 15 (NA) — Coach Matías Almeyda, who was in charge of leading River to the First Division after the relegation suffered in 2011, relived everything that was his last stage as a player and his subsequent foray as a coach , the call to the then millionaire president Daniel Passarella to take charge of the team in the B Nacional and the tears for promotion.
The former footballer assured that he decided to return to River at the beginning of 2009 to finish his stage as a player in the club where he had lived, worked and had been trained as a footballer and as a person: “It was my wish to end there. Two years later, in June 2011, we reached a decisive duel against Belgrano”.
“Round-trip game for permanence in the First or relegation to Second. The last week before that tie, I was very aware of what we were playing for. By then, I had also taken the role of team captain A team in which there were many youngsters”, he remarked.
Along these lines, Almeyda described the night River was relegated as “very sad” and “terrible”, adding: “Unfortunately, we lost the tie. It was the first time in River’s history that it had been relegated. We couldn’t leave the stadium. until four in the morning.”
The former midfielder revealed that after losing the category he could not sleep and confessed: “I kept thinking about it in my head to make a decision. The next morning, I called Daniel Passarella, the president of River at the time. I told him I wanted to be the coach.”
“‘Are you crazy? If you are the coach and things go wrong, you never lead again in your life,'” he revealed that Passarella responded after the call. And he replied, confidently: “I don’t care. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to be fine.”
In this regard, the current technical director of AEK Athens of Greece added: “Surely Passarella was right when he told me that I was crazy to decide to take River in my first job at the bank. With nothing yet as a coach, and in the face of such a dramatic situation like the one I told you about. But that decision was what made me start and be what I am now.”
Later, Almeyda said that it was difficult for him, the first days of being the coach of his former teammates, added to the context that the club was experiencing: “What I assumed was very heavy. Honestly, nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted to be River’s coach in a situation like that. But I did want that challenge. Really, as I always say, I did seven years in one because of all the wear and tear and all the passion with which we live it”.
“I know that I did not have the practice of being a coach like most, but I was going to put on the table everything I had seen in football. What I liked. And what I did not like, I never did. I never forget that I was a player, because I know that there are things that footballers don’t like. Above all, they want not to be lied to. I don’t lie in football. I try to be honest, sincere and frank with the players”, added the one who he won four local titles and the Copa Libertadores in River, in dialogue with The Coaches Voice.
The 49-year-old coach remarked that the mental issue was very important to survive a moment as difficult as the one that River went through in his season in the B Nacional and detailed: “We couldn’t even go out to eat with our families. We couldn’t go out either a Sunday off. It was training and home. So almost a year to avoid problems. We were hidden knowing that we depended on a result to live in peace”.
“That way of experiencing it for the fans was exaggerated for me because, ultimately, it’s about football. But I can’t take responsibility for how others feel. Even if I don’t share it, I do have to respect it. And that’s what we did. I know that for the system, what I call ‘success’ in football, it was a sin to enjoy that River had won in the Second Division. But that is ridiculous. Also a great lack of humility. The club was in that situation in that moment, and we managed to bring him back to First Division”, stressed Almeyda.
On the other hand, he stated that when he heard the final whistle in the match against Almirante Brown, which meant the return of River to First Division, he felt a discharge and a sensation of decompressing something with terrible emotion: “In fact, I fell into tears. I hardly I have cried for football, but I did it that time. However, I am not ashamed of it. It was to show that impotence, that anger and all that anger at everything we had heard from those who said that we were not going to be capable and that I wasn’t ready.”
In addition, he expressed that he fondly remembers the promotion to First Division, despite the fact that “many do not want to remember the moment”: “For my coaching staff and I, those of us who lived through it, we do want to remember, because all our relatives. Wives, children, fathers, mothers… They all really suffered. So, how can we not remember! And how can we not enjoy that we later got to the First Division quickly!”
Finally, the multi-champion coach with Guadalajara de México does not have good memories of his departure from River: “When we went up, the team, however, could not be reinforced. Supposedly at that time there was no money to make contracts. In this way, he continued practically the same squad that we had in B, but with some casualties. All in a year with the presidential elections.”
Almeyda described his departure from River as “painful” and argued: “Because there were few dates left for the end. I was left with great pain. ‘You don’t win, you don’t serve anymore.’ What we had done before did not matter at all. But that semester, I took it as a professional and personal learning that I have followed since then”.
“When I began to hear the rumors that they were going to throw me out, I changed the team’s system. Then I started to play with four central defenders to take care of myself, and that was the worst mistake. Something that I regret and that I would never do in My life as a coach My love for River was so great that I wanted to stay.
I wanted to do everything to continue, and it was a great learning experience. I don’t change my ways anymore, because ultimately they end up throwing you out the same. So better to leave with your boots on, right?” she finished.
LG/PT
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NA 04-15-23 14:27:15
Source: Ambito
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