"I am proud of the way you fought, the way you competed, the way you represented this club. You left everything on that pitch, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Defeat is a part of football, a part of life. It hurts, and it should hurt. But it is not the end. What matters now is how we respond. We can let this defeat break us, or we can let it make us stronger. And I know which one we will choose."
His words were a comfort, but they could not erase the pain of defeat. The cup dream was over. And for Mateo Alvarez, it was another harsh lesson in the cruel realities of elite football. He had learned that individual brilliance did not always guarantee team success, that sometimes, even when you were the best player on the pitch, it was not enough. And he had learned that handling defeat with dignity was as important as celebrating victory.
