O Always Ready receives this Thursday at 9:30 pm (Brasília time) the National-URU for the third preliminary phase of the CONMEBOL Libertadores with transmission by ESPN Star+. The El Alto team will have altitude in their favor: the city’s Municipal Stadium is 4,150m above sea level, 500m higher than in La Paz. In the previous phase, the Albirrojos beat Sporting Cristal 6-1 and forwarded the classification.
Scorer of one of the goals against the Peruvian rival, the Brazilian Wesley Tanque is one of Always Ready’s weapons. In an interview with ESPNthe 26-year-old player – signed by the Bolivian club this season – admits that the home game is essential for the duel against the three-time continental champion.
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“We are very confident, we are betting all our chips on achieving a great result here again, because we know that when players come, teams from outside La Paz come to play at altitude, it costs a lot, and we He hopes to play a great game to be able to hold on, like we did against Sporting Cristal”, he said.
“Our goal is to reach the group stage. We hope to have a great game at home, because when we play at home, we are very strong. We hope to play a great game, not as good as it was against Sporting Cristal. But we hope to get a good result there so we can play close in the second game.”
To gain an advantage in this trip, Wesley revealed part of Always Ready’s “secret”: accelerating the pace of the game with young athletes.
“It’s a project that the club has started to do now, to have new players. And I think this is a very strong point of our team: young players who have a lot of speed, a lot of transition, and that in attitude, for a team that comes from abroad, that is not used to this rhythm… We always imposing rhythm, imposing pressure, always looking for goals. I think this is the strong point, and that was noticeable against Sporting Cristal too. We managed to excel in the physical part too”, he explained.
Wesley Tanque celebrates Always Ready’s goal AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images
The center forward even says that the even higher altitude of El Alto in relation to La Paz is not so simple to adapt to. Nacional will do the best-known scheme for those who will play as a visitor: they will stay in Santa Cruz de la Sierra to go to the game city hours before.
“It’s complicated for us too, because we don’t train at our stadium, we train here in La Paz. Where we train is 3,700m high. And when we went up to play there, we also suffered a lot. But for those who come from abroad, those clubs that come and travel on the same day as the game, they are sorry, because they don’t change the atmosphere like that. And in the second half, even so, they can’t handle it, right? We’re missing a leg… Even for us, we’re missing a leg, imagine for someone from abroad”, he joked.
Wesley Tanque already had his first spell in Bolivian football in 2022, at Atlético Palmaflor, but his career started in a “random” way, far away from Brazil.
“I went to Germany when I turned 18. A businessman took a group of players there, promising that they would try out for a big team in the first and second divisions. And when he got there, he got us to work with a small team, from the seventh, eighth division. But thank God, a team that was in the fourth division (Oberlausitz) had just moved up from fifth to fourth, saw me playing there and liked it. The coach was Brazilian, I ended up staying there for a year and a half and was sold to the Czech Republic, in the first division of the Czech Republic (Slovan Liberec). Then I went back to Brazil, went to ASA, Comercial and Atibaia, then went to El Salvador too, where I was very happy. I came here to Bolivia, I was very happy, one of the top scorers in the championship. And I ended up leaving for Portugal (Trofense), then I was in China (Qingdao West Coast) and now I’m back to Always Ready”, he detailed.
The striker does not hide his goal of returning to Brazilian football to achieve a dream that is not just his. “I do have the desire to return to Brazil, to be able to test my level in Brazil, in Series A or Series B. I hope to be able to have a good championship here, a good Libertadores to see if something comes up from Brazil, because I I always wanted to play in Brazil, it was a dream of mine when I was little, my father’s dream, who has now passed away. I hope I can make that dream come true,” he said.
And, if he could choose, Wesley Tanque has two preferences: “I’m a big fan of Corinthians. I like it a lot Corinthians, from the crowd. I like the São Paulo Also, my wife is from São Paulo, and playing on these teams would be very, very special for me.”