The selection of Venezuela qualified this Thursday for the second time in its history to a U17 World Cup win 2-0 to Paraguay on the fourth day of the final hexagonal of the South American Championship sub’17, with goals from David Martínez and Mayken González.
The victory allowed the Red wine reach 6 points in the final hexagonal that takes place in Quito and win the last of the four places at stake for the next World Cup of the category, where they will also be Argentina, Brazil y Ecuadorwho already qualified in the previous day.
Without options to qualify they were left Paraguay y Chile.
The team led by Ricardo Valiño thus equaled the feat achieved in 2013 by the team then coached by Rafael Dudamel, when they qualified for a World Cup event for the first time with a team that included Andrés Ponce and Adalberto Peñaranda.
On this occasion, the architects of the classification have been David Martínez, a Monagas player, who has already made his debut in the Venezuelan first division, and other promising players such as Giovanny Sequera, defender Rai Hidalgo and striker Lucciano Reinoso.
La Vinotinto defined in the second half a very close and even match against Paraguay, with moments of roundtrip where the success was imposed inside the area of the Venezuelan players.
Valiño’s team came out determined to win but found an inspired Lirussi, the Paraguayan goalkeeper, who, as he had already done against Argentina, where he was the architect of the goalless draw, once again showed off his reflexes to avoid two goals by striker Mayken González in the first minutes of play.
As the first half progressed, the game began to balance and the best chance was at the feet of Paraguayan Jorge Mora, who was already singing a goal after a quick counterattack when the Venezuelan defense took the ball over the same line.
In the second half, the game had back and forth moments and a counterattack on the left flank served for Martínez to receive the ball free from the mark and, with great composure and without shaking his legs, scored the first goal with a sensational shot at the first touch against which Lirussi could do nothing.
The afternoon was rounded off by González, who signed one of the goals of the tournament with a right foot that kissed the left post of the Paraguayan goal to the delight of the Venezuelan fans present at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium.
– Datasheet:
2 – Venezuela: Jorge Sanchez; Yaicar Perdomo, Rai Hidalgo, Angel Borgo, James Silva; Jose Correa, Giovanny Sequera (m.46, Leenhan Rosemary), Emmanuel Melendez (m.46, Miguel Vegas); David Martinez (m.85, Andrew Pereira), Lucciano Reinoso (m.70, Junior Hill) and Mayken Gonzalez (m.90+2, Oscar Hinojosa).
Selector: Ricardo Valiño.
0 – Paraguay: Facundo Insfran Lirussi; Rodrigo Gomez (m.69, Alex Sosa), Emilio Acosta, Axel Balbuena (m.79, Oscar Lopez), Rolando Mongelos; Jorge Mora (m.69, Fernando Nurseries), Ever Colonel (m.57, Cesar Miño), Angel Aguayo, Rodrigo Villalba; Paulo Riveros and David Fernandez.
Coach: Aldo Bobadilla.
Goals: 1-0, m.70: David Martínez. 2-0, m.85: Mayken González.
Referee: Brazilian Savio Sampaio admonished Seguera (m.12), González (m.20), Mora (m.36), Gómez (m.46), Sosa (m.83), in addition to the assistant from Venezuela Marco Little cape (m.45).
Incidents: match of the fourth day of the final hexagonal of the South American Championship sub’17, played at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium, in Quito.