Vladimir Quesada, coach of Saprissa, expressed satisfaction after his team’s 3-0 win over Pérez Zeledón. The result brings Saprissa within one point of Cartaginés and Liberia at the top of the national league standings.
When asked about the victory, Quesada addressed previous criticism: “For us it is important, you called it whatever you wanted: failure, crisis, but this group that is behind us (in the purple locker room) is incredible. They have understood that we went through bad times, but despite that we are very clear about our immediate goals and our final objective. The immediate goal was to get into the qualification zone and we trained for that. Today what was good was reflected on the field. To win 3-0 you have to run more than your rival; the score is fair, I think we deserved it. The important thing is the balance we achieved and that we kept a clean sheet.”
Quesada added: “Now we want a good recovery for next Sunday (match against Cartaginés at home).”
The coach also commented on giving opportunities to young players in the squad: “When opportunities arise, we will do it. Obviously I’m not inventing anything. There are matches where we also have to rely on more experienced people. Today Kenneth González, Myrie and Garro were congratulated. They were given a warning by players and coaching staff that the most important thing is to maintain themselves. When they play with U-21 they have to make a difference. They were warned; it’s easy to get there because of the rule but hard to stay. I want them to work hard for these opportunities.”
On Warren Madrigal’s return after injury, Quesada said: “For us it is a great joy that he joins and has been medically cleared, although he has already done group training sessions. He has joined some games; Warren has participated well so far. I think now we need to give him some time; he needs to regain confidence and we’re going to be patient with him. For us it’s a great joy.”
Regarding tactical preparation during the week, Quesada explained: “When you find an offensive team even if they have defenders like Fidel Escobar, Kendall Waston, Pablo Arboine as happens with us, we’ve emphasized being supportive and defensive so as not to neglect that part. Offensively they already know what they have to do but we’ve worked on reinforcing things like defensive vigilance.”
