‘Nacho’ Quintana at the Gold Cup W: ‘We have to keep our heads up’

Many people will be blamed for the bad moment the women’s teams are going through, although coach Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Quintana claims he is the only one responsible and calls for us to “keep our heads up and keep fighting”.

After the 2-1 loss to Puerto Rico, coach “Nacho” Quintana maintained that the continent’s 12 best teams are in the W Gold Cup and that he does not want to be in the last place of the tournament.

“We have to understand that we are among the 12 best in the continent, I don’t want to stay at 12 and we have to improve. We have to keep fighting,” said the so-called “Nacho” Quintana, after the loss to the Puerto Ricans.

But the dangerous thing about Panama is the poor collective play they show in the 2024 Women’s Gold Cup held in the United States, conceding six goals against Colombia and the last defeat, which was against Puerto Rico 2-1, leaves Panama in a bad position. The Panamanian team led by “Nacho” Quintana, thinking it was their last game against the Brazilian giant.

The Panamanian team fell after the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and Quintana admits he does not know the reason, but he promised to find a formula to achieve this and improve the performance of the girls, either in football or psychological terms.

“I am the only one responsible,” Quintana repeated, regarding the poor results of the Panamanian team and the loss to the Puerto Rican national team, the same speech he gave after the loss to Colombia.

“It hurts to lose the way we lost,” Quintana said of the poor result against the Puerto Ricans 2-1, admitting that after Carin Baltrip Reyes’ goal was disallowed, the Panamanian team could not get up.

“Nacho” Quintana does not believe that Panama’s appearance at the 2024 W Gold Cup is a “failure”.

“I failed as a coach, I don’t think Panama (the team) failed,” Quintana said, adding that the failure was his, because he could not achieve the goal outlined from the microcycle, such as changing on time.

Likewise, the technician of the Panamanian cast stated that his plans do not include resigning from his position.

– I didn’t give up, because it doesn’t go with my football philosophy. Quintana said of the possibility of leaving the bench: “We have one more game (Brazil) and we have to keep our heads up,” he added.

Only a miracle could save Panama from elimination, there is one more date left to play, and with a goal difference of -7, Panama failed to add points in Group B, led by Brazil with 6, Colombia and Puerto Rico They have 3 units.