Cocca spoke in the preview of the first leg of the 2021 Apertura final in which Atlas will visit León this Thursday.
Argentine Diego Cocca, coach of the Atlas of Mexican football, asserted this Wednesday that to end the 70 years that his team has without being a champion they must play with a cool head.
“We have a beautiful challenge. We understand the overflowing emotions that fans have for time without a title, but we must keep a cool head and play with our hearts. It is the challenge, to break that streak, but with a cold mind ”, argued the coach who has in his ranks the tricolor Aníbal Chalá.
Cocca spoke in the preview of the first leg of the 2021 Apertura final in which Atlas will visit Ángel Mena’s León this Thursday.
Atlas won their only league championship in the 1950-51 season and the most recent final they played was lost in 1999 to Toluca, a streak that the strategist assumes they can break.
“We must impose conditions, it is the challenge, it is the same that we have faced throughout the tournament to get here. It will not be easy, but if we are focused we will be closer to winning, “he explained.
Diego Cocca, who in Argentine football crowned and broke with Racing in 2014 a 13-year drought without titles, presumed that the most dangerous thing about his Atlas is the identity that he has established since the Apertura 2020 when he came to the bench.
“There is an evolution of ours. We are a young team. We started with uncertainty, trying to find our system and today we have an established identity. Today we are going to defend that identity, we are happy to be here and we want to win ”.
The helmsman stressed the importance of not going out to defend in León, despite the fact that the main strength of his team throughout the regular tournament was its defense, which only conceded 10 goals in 17 games.
“If we go backwards we will have a bad time, we cannot betray our football idea, and less in a final. Atlas will play as he has done throughout the tournament ”.
Cocca stressed that the final between his team and León, led by his compatriot Ariel Holan, will raise the name of his country’s football.
“We are representatives of Argentine soccer and we want to leave its name high, open doors for the players and coaches who come. I am proud to be in a final and even more so for facing an Argentine coach in it ”. (D)
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