Santiago de Chile, June 17 (EFE).- Chile lands in the United States, where it won the two-time Copa América championship in 2016 with a ‘Golden Generation’ of which four leaders remain, immersed in a new cycle with coach Ricardo Gareca who will assemble his renewed team there for the 2026 World Cup.
For the Argentine coach, a good Copa América is equivalent to “advancing to the next phase”, that is, surpassing Group A in which Argentina, Peru and Canada are located. From there, “it will depend on the rival” they meet.
In the 2021 edition, La Roja advanced to the quarterfinals and lost to local Brazil 1-0, after having qualified fourth in Group A with a single win against Bolivia, two draws with Argentina and Uruguay, and a defeat with Paraguay, very far from the performance that led it to its first title in 2015.
Since his arrival last January, Gareca made it clear that the priority is to right the course in the South American World Cup qualifiers in which they are outside the qualifying positions, after six of the eighteen rounds.
La Roja remained in 2023, under the direction of Eduardo Berizzo, in eighth place with five points from a victory over Peru (2-0), two goalless draws with Colombia and Paraguay, and three defeats against Uruguay (3-1 ), Venezuela (3-0) and Ecuador (1-0).
Strengthen the idea
The ‘Tigre’ has had little time to work with just three friendlies played, so the continental tournament offers him the space he needs to consolidate his idea of the game, which has already had good results.
A 3-0 defeat against Albania, a 3-2 defeat against France that left a good image last March, and a recent 3-0 victory against Paraguay give confidence to Gareca’s plan, which revived the hopes of the Chileans.
The coach has prevailed with his diagnosis and from his first call to the list for the Copa América there were few changes.
Of the ‘Golden Generation’ only the goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, the winger Mauricio Isla, the figure Alexis Sánchez and the forward Eduardo Vargas would remain. All, except Sánchez, ruled out by Berizzo who cited Arturo Vidal and Gary Medel, both out today.
The bulk of footballers play abroad. Some with minutes in the tie like Matías Catalán, Diego Valdés, Rodrigo Echeverría and Darío Osorio, and others entered the radar like Igor Lichnovsky and Thomas Galdames.
Assemble the equipment
The basis of Gareca’s starting eleven is a 4-2-3-1 formation in which Sánchez emerges freely as a midfielder, the goal returned to the hands of Bravo, the right back is Isla and his only striker is Vargas.
In the first rehearsals, Paulo Díaz, Lichnovsky and Gabriel Suazo have had more minutes in defense and in the midfield Marcelino Núñez, Rodrigo Echeverría, Darío Osorio and Víctor Dávila, but the injuries of Guillermo Maripán, Erick Pulgar or Diego Valdés altered some of the initial plans.
The Copa América will give the Argentine coach greater certainty about the path to achieving the goal of returning to the World Cup.
Maria Jose Rey
(c) EFE Agency
