The visit of Colo Colo was to be one of the biggest games of my managerial career so far.
With a record of P14 W10 D4 in the league, and arriving in San Felipe after a midweek 1-1 draw with Argentine giants River Plate, the Los Albos certainly wouldn't be short of confidence.
We on the other hand, had won our previous two games without conceeding a goal and had turned around a slight blip in our form.
Municipal de San Felipe had it's biggest crowd of the season with 4,831 supporters to see how we'd manage against the League favourites.
We made one change to the team, with our captain Valladares pushing up into left to replace the ineligible Fierro and reserve player Lira filled in at full back. We decided to stick to our more attacking formation of 4-4-2 rather than revert back to our rigid 4-5-1. Gonzalo Mancilla continued in goal with Omar Acros on the bench after recovering from injury.
From the minute we kicked off, we looked positive and settled, defensively we looked solid and our midfield was working hard and constantly looking to pick out our forward men Nunez and Reyes. The Colo Colo defence were penetrated after just 10mins as Nunez burst through their defence and finished past their keeper, putting us in front and sending the Union San Felipe supporters crazy! We were in front!!
As Colo Colo kicked off, we again made life as difficult as possible for them as we continued looking lively and confident, this paid off when Nunez again found himself through on goal on 16mins and doubled our advantage, 2-0!!!
We were in dream land, Colo Colo had their fair share of opportunities but we looked solid all over the field and were looking the better side. This was evident when on 29mins our pacey foward Patrico Reyes burst through and made it 3-0 with a clinical finish. Unbelivable...
Colo Colo piled the pressure on and got rewarded minutes later when their Brazilian midfielder Leonardo had his shot parried by our keeper, defender Ahumada turned the ball in, scoring an own goal. 3-1.
We continued to match whatever Colo Colo threw at us and as the whistle went for half time, I honestly couldn't belive what I had seen.
It was important we didn't let our performance dip in the second half as another goal to Colo Colo would put them right back in the game, but we remained focused and determinded. Luiz Nunez almost completed his hatrick early in the second half only to see the linesman flagging for offside, and as we had our chances, Colo Colo had theirs forcing Mancilla pull off some solid saves.
As the clocked got closer and closer to full time, Colo Colo spread themselves more and did begin to look like they'd snatch a second goal but each time we won the ball we'd create a chance and began to look like we'd score as well. With Nunez picking up a knock I brought on DMC Juan Carlos Espinoza and went to a more cautous 4-5-1 for the remaining 5 minutes or so. This worked as Colo Colo were unable to create any clear cut chances for the remainder of the game. The full time whistle went and we had beaten the undefeated league leaders 3-1!!!
I was absolutely delighted with the performance and comittment shown by the players today. We'd taken on the best team in league and played superbly. The result sees us remain 4th but puts us just three points behind second placed Universidad Catolica.
We look unbeatable right now, but have it all to do in our next game as we visit 8th placed Everton (another TV game)who's form has dipped of late. We then visit mid table Palestino before home games with Coquimbo Unido. Our final game of the Opening stage see us visit lowly Puerto Montt, which we should by then have qualification for the play-off phase sealed up.
The Colo Colo game.