We’ve come away winners: Garcia

Sports

Venezuela’s Gabriela Garcia was the first to leave the pitch when the final whistle sounded on her side’s 3-2 loss to Mexico on Monday, a result that ended their Under-20 women’s soccer World Cup.
As she made her way to the dressing room, the tall forward had a bittersweet mix of thoughts of the past, present and future running through her mind, as she explained to Fifa.com. “On a personal level, I’m going away quite happy because I came on and made a contribution, though we didn’t get the result we wanted,” Garcia said.
“Even so, we’ve still got a long way ahead of us. We’ve just got to keep on working so we can come back stronger at future tournaments.”
One thing for sure is that Garcia did not expect to be waving goodbye to the competition quite so soon.
Neither did the fans, who still have vivid memories of the fourth place achieved by Garcia and her teammates at the 2014 Fifa U17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
Was there simply too much pressure on Venezuela in Papua New Guinea?
“I don’t think so,” came the reply. “You have to understand that it was our first U20 World Cup and we didn’t know what we were up against. Even so, we still played some great games,” she said. “Overall, we haven’t lost. We’ve come away winners because we’ve learned so many things. That’s going to help us and become stronger.”
“We’ve just got to keep on working so we can come back stronger at future tournaments.
In Costa Rica two years ago, Garcia had the richly talented Deyna Castellanos for support, with both scoring six goals apiece.
Following her exploits at Jordan 2016, however, Castellanos could not make it to PNG.
Contemplating what might have been, Garcia, 19, said: “Maybe she could’ve brought a lot to the team if she’d been here.
“Maybe we can play together again for Venezuela in another team, or her with the rest of this team.
“But I don’t think we missed any players at all; not her or anyone.”
While that may be so, Garcia did not have a tournament to remember.
Starting just the one match — her side’s first game, against Germany — she spent more time on the bench than on the pitch, but still managed to score a goal and have two assists.
“She didn’t play more because of technical reasons,” explained Venezuela coach Jose Catoya.
“She’s tall and good in the air, but we needed quicker players up front.
“I don’t know if she feels frustrated, but if she is, then that’s something she has to work on, because that’s just the way things are in professional football.” – Fifa.com