Javier Torrente: “With belief, effort and points, we will get what we need”

Javier Torrente accepted that Libertad deserved its 4-2 victory over Rubio Ñu, but the Rubio Ñu coach chose to focus on his team’s response and its battle to avoid relegation.

“We currently have seven points from five matches, and that is not enough,” Torrente said. He added that the team’s previous two coaches had averaged fewer than one point per game, and that the immediate objective was to raise Rubio Ñu’s average by collecting the points it still needs.

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We currently have seven points from five matches, and that is not enough, but the previous two coaches had fewer than one. Raising the average is what we are looking for, trying to go after the points we are missing.

Torrente believed a missed first-half penalty could have changed the match. Had Rubio Ñu converted, he said, the teams would have gone into halftime level at 2-2, with a different mood for the second half. Libertad had controlled more of the ball and moved better, he acknowledged, before eventually surpassing Rubio Ñu through its rotations and changes of pace.

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It was a first half in which, if we had converted the penalty, we would have gone into halftime at 2-2 and with a different mood for the second half.

The coach also pointed to his side’s reaction after falling 4-1 behind. Rubio Ñu increased the tempo and could have scored more before finding another goal from the penalty spot. Torrente said his team had perhaps been more competitive in the first half, while the second proved more difficult.

With the pressure increasing, Torrente said morale would be more important than anything else. “We are focusing much more on the psychological side than on anything else. We will try to give the team the drive and energy it needs,” he said. The next challenge will be a demanding sequence against Libertad, Nacional, Cerro and the league leader, matches in which Rubio Ñu knows it must take points despite the difficulty.

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We are focusing much more on the psychological side than on anything else. We will try to give the team the drive and energy it needs.