América and Deportivo Cali will play on Sunday a new edition of the Valle del Cauca classic on matchday 16 of the Colombian league, a duel to which the Diablos Rojos arrive as leaders and in which the Azucareros aim to seal their permanence in the First Division.
At the Pascual Guerrero stadium there will also be a duel of Uruguayan coaches between Jorge ‘Polilla’ Da Silva, from América, and Alfredo Arias, from Deportivo Cali, who will not be on the bench but is trying to get the team out of the hole.
The Scarlet team has just tied 1-1 in their visit to Atlético Bucaramanga in the first leg of the Colombia Cup semifinals, after which Da Silva assured that his players are “exhausted from playing every three days“.
That is why there would be nothing strange if, despite being a classic, the strategist chose to rest several of his starters, also taking into account that his team qualified early for the semi-final home runs of the Colombian league.
Cali, meanwhile, managed to beat Bucaramanga the previous weekend and will seek its second victory in a row with the expectation of guaranteeing its permanence in the First Division, something that will also depend on Jaguares and Patriotas losing their games.
Arias has the veteran as his main doubt for this game Fredy Monterothe team’s top scorer, who missed the last four games due to a muscle injury from which he is barely recovering.
In any case, some of the team’s most experienced players are expected to start, such as center back Francisco Meza, midfielder Alex Mejía, midfielders Jarlan Barrera and Kelvin Osorio and forward Andrey Estupiñán.
América leads the tournament with 33 points, while Cali is in 16th place with just 14 points and no longer able to qualify for the home runs.
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Survival
Atlético Bucaramanga, led by Venezuelan Rafael Dudamel and current league champion, will host Deportivo Independiente Medellín (DIM) on Sunday in a match for survival, as the hosts are tenth with 21 points, one more than their rival who occupies 11th place.
Both teams have come from achieving adverse results in the Cup semifinals, as Leopardo tied 1-1 at home with América and Poderoso fell 2-0 with Atlético Nacional.
Achieving a victory is important for both, since with four games left until the end of the regular phase of the tournament they are two and four points, respectively, behind Deportivo Pasto, which is eighth.
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