Author: Soorya G
The
4-1 defeat to Santos
on Sunday at Vila Belmiro interrupted Vasco’s run of good results, but did not shake the confidence of coach Ramón Díaz. After the match, the coach acknowledged the team’s mistakes that need to be corrected, but reiterated his pride in the players for their recovery in the Brazilian Championship.
Ramón praised Vasco’s performance in the first half, before the team conceded two goals at the end of the first half. He emphasized the need not to let our guard down. According to him, the fight against relegation will continue until the end.
“I think we played a good first half. The two teams were sharing control, attacking and defending. It was an unfortunate situation for us with the penalty, because he opened the scoring and we had to take more risks in attack. We weren’t as precise. I’m proud of the team, of everything we’re doing because, in the last four games, we’ve won three and lost one. We never said we’d win every game. It’s a fight to the finish. Let’s keep fighting. There’s a long way to go, but we know we have to correct some of the mistakes we’ve made“, said Ramón Díaz.
Ramón Díaz also criticized the fight between Vasco and Santos players that led to Medel’s expulsion and stressed that Vasco must not lose heart after the defeat. The team will now have a run of four games in Rio de Janeiro, playing in front of their home fans.
“I also regret Medel’s sending off because he’s an important player for us. Unfortunately, it was an action that involved both teams fighting for important things, which is why everyone reacted. We hope this doesn’t happen again. Let’s keep competing. We’re not defeated, on the contrary, we’re proud of the team and the fans who support us. We have a lot of courage and will to continue, a lot of enthusiasm with our fans. Let’s keep fighting. This is just the beginning. There’s no reason to be discouraged, because one defeat can’t erase everything we’ve done. We arrived when we were in last place, almost relegated. Now we’re fighting. Nobody said we were already saved. I’m proud and we’ll certainly fight to the end.“
With the defeat, Vasco remain on 26 points and have dropped to 16th place. The club could slip back into the relegation zone if Goiás pick up points against Botafogo on Monday.