Guabirá beat San Antonio Bulo Bulo 2:1 in the Group Stage of the Professional Division Cup on Sunday evening. The result flips a recent record that had been heavily in favour of the visitors, who had won 5:1 when the sides met last month. Three goals in the first half set the pattern, with Guabirá taking a lead they never surrendered.
C. Preciado opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute, and the visitors had already pulled level by the thirty-fifth through S. Garzon. Guabirá then went ahead again before the break, with T. Chavez adding a third in the forty-fourth. The visitors picked up two bookings in five minutes around that period, and the momentum shifted. By then the manager had started reshuffling, bringing on A. Medina and replacing Preciado at half-time.
There were plenty of bodies moved around after the interval, more than you would expect for a game this close. Guabirá brought on S. Guerra in the sixtieth minute, V. Abrego soon after, while the visitors made four changes in the seventy-fourth, including a double swap for T. Chavez and L. Yanarico. The substitutions suggest a game where the manager felt the need to change something, even when the result was not in doubt.
Guabirá dominated the attacking numbers, registering 90 attacks to the visitors' 65. They held 51 per cent of possession and fired six shots on target, compared with a single effort from San Antonio that found the net once. The visitors managed four corners but had their shots accuracy at just ten per cent, while Guabirá's was 46. The statistics tell the story of a team that found a way back into it, even if the away side had more corners.
The five yellow cards came in two groups — L. Giossa and S. Villamil for Guabirá, Thiago Ribeiro, Rafinha and A. Terrazas for the visitors. There were no red cards, and the game ended without further incident. Guabirá's defensive work was solid, with only five offsides called against them compared to two for the visitors.
This result ends San Antonio's unbeaten run against Guabirá in this fixture, and it may change how the group is viewed. The visitors had come into the match with confidence, but they had also just lost 3:1 to Independiente Petrolero. Guabirá, meanwhile, had suffered a 6:1 hammering at Alayes REDI a week earlier. The table does not move dramatically from one game, but the pattern of the season is being written in these moments.
