By: EFE
Argentinean Diego Cocca, coach of the Atlas of Mexican soccer, accepted this Saturday that the short time of preseason and five casualties due to COVID-19 affected the performance of his team in his first Clausura tournament match 2022.
In their stadium, Jalisco de Guadalajara, Atlas, league champion, beat San Luis with an own goal by Ramón Juárez, in a game in which the team was far from their best form, which Cocca acknowledged.
“We knew it was going to be difficult because of the short preparation time. Due to the COVID-19 that affected us, we had to modify, there was no preparation time, so it is impossible to be with the same filming, intensity and ease with which we finished the tournament”, he said at a press conference.
The Argentine assured that he would maintain a good squad in which everyone would have the chance to enter the starting team, although he accepted that he would give the youngest players more opportunities.
“Those who get the opportunity, have to take advantage of it , today we saw a good will to the team and we must give more filming to some players, to some young people, try to grow”, he said.
The red and black team is placed in seventh place in the classification with three points, in the absence of playing the match of the first date of the tournament.
The strategist highlighted the good play of the defense Emanuel Aguilera, only reinforcement so far and who debuted with the team, after arriving at training three days ago.
“Aguilera arrived, he is a player of hierarchy, he has already shown it, he is going to continue giving us defensive solvency, a important characteristic in this team and we will continue to grow from midfield forward”, he pointed out.
The coach did not rule out that the club could take greater sanitary and transportation measures to prevent more players from being infected by COVID-19, as they are aware that the virus is circulating in different ways.
The Atlas will face next Wednesday the León on a pending date of day 1.