The club psychologist at Atletico Nacional, Dr Orlando Caicedo is someone who normally does his work behind the scenes. By the time he gets to see the players and talk to them about the mental side of the game, they have usually done their physical preparations and had their tactical team talks. In the last few days, however, he has taken on a more prominent role, becoming the first port of call for the members of the Verdolaga squad, who have been shaken hard by the Chapecoense air crash and had difficulty in coming to terms with it before making the long journey west to the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2016.
“Some of the players have been very badly affected by it,” said Atletico coach Reinaldo Rueda shortly after the tragedy. “Some of them have felt it more than others and have been thinking a lot about the 22-hour flight ahead of us. That’s the risk that comes with this profession. We’re exposed to that kind of situation. Dr Caicedo has started to do his work and I’m sure some of the players will be seeking him out individually. We hope to get over this, but it won’t be easy.”
The team psychologist has been giving the players his support since the tragedy, as he explained to FIFA.com: “We’ve been doing a lot of work with the squad. Our job was to speed up the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), and to reduce them to two, three or four days. To do that we used orthodox, conventional techniques and approaches such as neuropsychotherapy and pranic healing, which is a sub-speciality of medicine.
“The tragedy has made the players more vulnerable than anyone. As we’ve seen for ourselves or as they’ve told us, they’ve been the hardest hit by it. We’ve seen in their day-to-day behaviour how sensitive they are.”
That vulnerability has only been heightened by the empathy the players have felt for their colleagues, the 17 Brazilian footballers who died in the crash and who, like them, played in green and white. The fact that the Atletico squad had a long flight to Japan ahead of them made them feel even more apprehensive, though the first part of the journey - from Medellin to the Colombian capital of Bogota, where the team contested the first leg of their Torneo Clausura semi-final, allowed them to put their ongoing recovery from the tragedy to the test. “In some ways it was an experiment for us, a chance to see that the therapy was having an effect. We could see that the anxiety, concern, dread and fear is not there.”
Moving on The time has come to get back to normal, which is why Atletico’s medical services have asked the media to avoid, as much as possible, asking the players about the crash. Their aim is for the players to put the tragedy behind them so that they can focus on what they have to do on the pitch, while remembering the victims in their hearts.
In much the same way, the players will have to get back into the habit of travelling. “The fewer reminders they have of the event, the easier it will be for them,” explained Caicedo. “We had a normal flight and they each entertained themselves in the ways that they wanted, with their tablets, mobile phones, films and books. They even shared jokes, as they’d usually do.”
The aim in Japan will be for the players to make something positive of the experience they have been through. “We see it as a source of motivation for them,” he added. “We are going to do all we can to make things easier for them and, in doing so, to honour the people who died.”
No sooner had Atletico lifted the Copa Libertadores and booked their ticket to Japan than a huge sense of excitement began to take hold of everyone associated with the club. That excitement has only grown since then, especially in the last few days. Rightly proud of their decision to have asked for the 2016 Copa Sudamericana to be awarded to Chapecoense, who were travelling to play them in Medellin for the first leg of the final when the accident occurred, Atletico are now anxious to get their hands on another piece of silverware: the Club World Cup.
“In taking the decision and making the request to CONMEBOL, the club took into consideration the feelings of the players,” explained Caicedo. “It was their idea and it’s only going to make them even more motivated to go and win the Club World Cup.”
Having now touched down in Osaka, El Verde de la Montaña are ready to defend their green and white colours with more belief and determination than ever.