SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – You can count Olimpia head coach Carlos Restrepo as a fan of the Scotiabank CONCACAF League (SCL).
Speaking with media Wednesday, a day before his side’s 2017 SCL final, second leg against host Santos de Guapiles, the Colombian praised the new competition, highlighting the fact it offers Central American clubs more opportunities to compete internationally.
“I have liked that the possibility is given to clubs to be a bit more international, of having a preliminary club tournament to have the right to make the Champions League,” said Restrepo. “I believe that we have liked it. It is an alternative that we like and, hopefully, it keeps growing because that’s how the area’s football grows.”
For Olimpia, there is much at stake in Thursday’s clash. The Honduran power is vying for the chance to compete in the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League a 10th consecutive time, and thus remaining the only club to have featured in every edition of the competition.
It must first, however, overturn a 1-0 deficit in San Jose’s Estadio Nacional. Restrepo says that fans can expect an Olimpia that will look to strike the right balance between attack and defense.
“There are many ways to get the victory,” the 56-year-old finished. “Individually, you have to attack, but it has to be organized. Scoring early would give us life, so we are going to go out to find the match and feel assured…not just in defense, but in possession of the ball, in transitions, not allowing spaces, not getting disorganized and not playing to emotions.”
Olimpia last lifted a CONCACAF trophy in 1988, when it overcame Trinidad & Tobago’s Defence Force, 4-0 on aggregate, to capture the Champions’ Cup title.