Ivan Roman sends a warning at Colo Colo: against Universidad de Chile, "Colo Colo always has to go for the win in the classics"

A Superclasico with the flavor of distance. That's what's at stake this Sunday at Estadio Nacional, where Colo Colo knows that a win over Universidad de Chile doesn't just mean three points, it also pushes their rival a bit further down the 2026 Campeonato Nacional table. And in the middle of a buildup loaded with pressure, a new voice in the Colo Colo squad stepped up to take some of the drama out of it.

That voice belongs to Ivan Roman, the defender who arrived as a new signing and is already starting to make himself heard in the locker room's daily conversation. Asked about the magnitude of the match, the center back was clear: at Colo Colo, no result other than a win is on the table.

I'm calm, you always want to play, like every player does, but we've prepared well, we've trained hard. We know how important the match is and that Colo Colo always has to go for the win in the classics.Ivan Roman

The quote sums up the mood in the squad well: nobody's taking it lightly, but nobody's loading the match with anxiety that could backfire either. Roman went a step further and placed the derby within a bigger objective, something that in a long tournament like this one often makes the difference between fighting for the title and falling out of the race.

We have to keep going step by step, game by game. To be champion you have to be focused on every matchday. We have to win, we want to win and it'll be important, but with our minds set on the bigger goal, which is being champion.Ivan Roman

Vidal's shadow (a good one)

Within the squad, there's an internal battle that hasn't gone unnoticed: Roman's own competition with Arturo Vidal for a starting spot at the back. Far from creating tension, the new arrival preferred to highlight what it means to share a locker room with a leading figure of the Chilean national team's "Golden Generation."

"I've been able to talk with Arturo, he's a very good person. He's an idol of mine from the 'Golden Generation' and he's helped me a lot in training," the defender said, and he was honest about how that competition for a starting job gets settled: "Obviously it'll always be healthy competition, and the coach decides who he thinks is in better shape to play."

Roman also looked back on his own path in the game, marked by very different stages. He came through Palestino, where the road to a starting role moved faster than expected, and he also picked up experience in Brazil, a league that, as he admitted, put him face to face with a tougher side of the profession.

"I learned a lot of things from important players. I went through the hard side, because at Palestino it happened very fast. When I was young I was always a starter, then I moved up to the first team, and in Brazil I had to deal with the rough side of soccer," he said.

With that background behind him, Colo Colo heads into the classic with a player who doesn't hide the group's ambition: win on Sunday to keep stretching the lead and, above all, never lose sight of the ultimate goal of finishing the year as champions.