Fabián Bustos: he inherited a champion, a team that he did not form and the reason why he is the ideal coach for this leading U

He is, they explain to me, a simple man. Methodical. Neither so obsessive that he does not sleep watching videos, nor so confident that he does not know that the U, in this stretch of April and May, is going to play 10 games in 40 days and needs to dose. Lunch at Mangos de Larcomar if you have time, wear short-sleeved shirts like cabala and manage the weight of history, the Centennial, and the undefeated record of 25 games with kind statements that fit perfectly in this refounded, growing U, far from that monster that ate leaders and footballers alive and turned even those who were best friends into enemies.

-It’s good to be part of the club’s history. But this is done game by game.

Not Superman or Clark Kent. A professional who is doing his job. And he is winning.

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How do you explain your team and this victory against Unión Comercio, which at least until Sunday has you as the leader of the Apertura, with 30 points? First, his technical command: Edgardo Adinolfi knows this squad from another time, when the Ferrari era began with Gregorio Pérez and he knows what Aldo Corzo, Nelson Cabanillas, Diego Romero, Alex Valera, from those years in Campo Mar, can offer. And of course, to the selected ones Edison Flores and Andy Polo. He had there, in those first days of summer when he had to run, a slight advantage. He bought time. L Finally, and I think this is where his relationship with the team lies, he finally gave a chance to all the forwards on the team, until he found the right one for him. That’s where Tunche came in, for example. He took Cabanillas’ position, but challenges him to play the second half. He took Pérez Guedes out for the first few games to test Cancha but then returned the tape to him, given his functionality and sacrifice. This Friday, in the heat of Moyobamba, he repaid him with two goals.

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In football, doubts are not cleared up with conferences that leave mantras or wallpaper photos: only with victories. It’s like that. They brought Bustos in for three reasons: the references of his work, his leadership in heavy groups and, above all, because of his knowledge of the squad and what was at stake for the U this year. “How is Valera?” he asked quickly, as soon as he stepped foot in Lima. “It’s good that Williams came out champion,” he said in one of the first meetings with the administration. “I love Tunche, it’s spicy, you train twice as hard, it makes it difficult for me”, he said a few weeks ago, when José Rivera went from being the fifth forward to a very fair starter in the U. His name is Fabián Bustos, he is the pragmatic coach of the U, the person responsible for this healthy habit of winning. If it was necessary to play 3-5-2, inherited from the last cycle, 3-5-2 is played. If you have to change to a line of 4, like in that match in Cusco that ended precisely tied with a goal from Tunche, you change it. And if the result has to be endured, he pulls two ships like Dorregaray and Olivares and forgets about the subtlety of Valera or the World Cup CV of Oreja Flores.

Without the forceful scoring that Champions League fans expect for this League 1 U, nor the aesthetic of walls and huachitas that the U had, yes, but as miraculous milestones in its history – more made of Astengos and Carranzas than of Terrys or Grondonas-, Fabián Bustos’ U is the leader of the championship, remains undefeated in 25 games, they spent an autumn, a spring, a summer and another autumn since their last defeat -2-0 by ADT on 8-16-2023- and walks with authority in the final stretch of the championship. It’s difficult to know if he’s going to win it, given Cristal de Moreira’s almost perfect game. But what he’s going to fight about, he’s going to fight about.