Universidad Catolica played a home match against Guayaquil City and made a very good impression after losing to Emelec in the previous round. The home team conceded an early goal after Guayaquil managed to get through Universidad Catolica their defence through a quick counter-attack. Universidad Catolica played in a 4-2-3-1 formation with very attacking-minded full-backs. The whole team was very aggressive in recovering possession early and were determined to win this match. They scored the equalizer early after the 0-1 was conceded and managed to get a winner late in the game through Kevin Minda.
Ratings
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Rockson Renteria
- Nationality: Ecuadorian
- Age: 19
- Date of birth: 25-10-2001
- Club: Universidad Catolica
- Career: Universidad Catolica
- Position: Centre Back
- Preferred foot: Right
Rockson Renteria played as the right central defender in what was his official debut for Universidad Catolica. He formed a duo with Kevin Minda and they both impressed a lot during this match. Renteria was very strong in the duels and was capable of pushing his opponent off the ball and used this ability a lot of times. The right-back of Universidad Catolica, Andres Lopez, was very attacking-minded which meant that he would play high up the pitch and was not able to get back in time quite often. The opponent’s striker or attacking midfielder would drift out wide often to open up passing lanes for Guayaquil City when they got put under pressure. Both these things meant that Renteria would often have 1v1 duels with the opponent’s striker or attacking midfielder on the wing and a lot of these duels were with the back to the goal.
When in 1v1 duels, he closed down his opponent aggressively and forced him to go backwards instead of attempting to get past Renteria. The youngster did not have any nerves or fear to make mistakes. Renteria was too late with his challenge one or two times and this led to him getting a yellow card early in the second half. However, he showed maturity after he got a yellow card since he defended in a more passive way which also was very effective for Rockson Renteria as he still managed to recover possession from time to time. Renteria defended very proactively and was tasked to do this since Universidad Catolica wanted to win back possession early. He stepped out of the defensive line often and was very confident in doing so. He looked dominant and very powerful in the first meters.
Renteria and Minda formed a very good duo as Renteria would often step out of the defensive line while Kevin Minda was capable of covering Renteria’s back. The Ecuadorian 19-year-old even got an assist after he stepped out of the defensive line, won back possession by making a tackle. Martinez received the ball after Renteria made the tackle and scored a goal from long-range. Renteria won most aerial duels as well as he had good timing in the aerial duels.
The 19-year-old scanned well before receiving and even did this when he was being put under pressure. Renteria did not have any fear of dribbling it out from the back but could do this more often as he sometimes had a lot of space to do so as Guayaquil City played in a low block. The Ecuadorian often chose for a short, powerful pass towards the wing and all these passes were really accurate.
Rating: A2
He needs to gain more experience in this league and keep performing as well as he did today.