“Let’s work, Wanderers!” scream in the middle of the Pacific Ocean started the unusual training of part of the Santiago Wanderers squad at the heliport of the Chilean Navy Ship Aquiles, in which he traveled to Robinson Crusoe Island, in the Juan Fernández Archipelagoto play an unprecedented match that will inaugurate the 2024 Chile Cup this Saturday.
Oldest Chilean team
In a space 14 meters long by 9.8 meters wide with open views of the sea, 17 youth players from the professional club oldest in Chilean footballwho is active in Primera B, carried out physical work in the middle of a journey of more than 30 hours that arrived this Thursday at Cumberland Bay, from where they boarded other boats to arrive at a small dock.
There awaited them land that inspired the famous novel by English writer Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoewhere the National Professional Football Association of Chile (ANFP) planned this duel in which the Valparaíso team will face a local amateur team.
It will be a version of called by FIFA the “match of the century”” which was played 15 years ago on Easter Island with Colo Colo as the protagonist. The second in the history of Chilean football to be played on island territory.
Play a soccer game in that hidden place of 900 inhabitantswhere only three airlines arrive with planes with a maximum capacity of eight people, required seven months of planning.
Match at municipal stadium
In September of last year, trips to the island began to finalize the organization of this meeting that was will play at the Municipal Stadium of San Juan Bautistaa synthetic grass field on the seashore, which needed some additions such as dressing rooms, among other details, to be certified.
In addition, all the details for a live television broadcast.
The date of the duel was also subject to the availability of trips of the Aquiles Ship. At first it was believed that it would be in May and it ended up being at the end of April, since it is a 35-year-old ship that provides support to the island territories of the southern country, and whose navigation log accumulates more than 900,000 nautical miles, which is equivalent to 43 times around the world, according to the Infodefensa portal.
“It is a unique experience, it is very nice that Santiago Wanderers has this opportunity. We are a club that represents Valparaíso and its sea, so We want to make the most of this experience.”said the player Diego Opazo, who is also part of the Chilean U-20 team.
Ship training
Opazo and his teammates, along with five members of the coaching staff, set sail from the port of Valparaíso last Tuesday and lived the experience of sleep in cabins with bunk beds with a place for four people and train in the two small gyms that the ship has.
In the end, between going and returning there are six days of travel and if the conditions at sea are not optimal, the dizziness, vomiting and dehydration can affect them.
This is the reason why the Santiago Wanderers board agreed with the ANFP that only seven players from the first team would travel, which will arrive alongside the Uruguayan coach Francisco Palladino by plane hours before the game.
“We were going to be the only team, both in the first and second division, that had been exposed to these conditions that were going to harm our competitive performance, so we agreed to participate with a mixed team,” he had declared in the media. Rodrigo Feldsted, general manager of Santiago Wanderers.
Local team of fishermen and councilors
Besides, traveling by plane was impossible. required a logistics of more than 10 aircraft and each ticket costs 900,000 pesos (approximately $1,000).
On the island, which has been a national park of Chile since 1935 and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO declaration since 1977, they have also prepared to give a real party and seriously compete with their team directed by Chilean coach Jorge Garcés.
He Juan Fernández team It began training in August of last year, after it was announced that it would host the inaugural match, but starting in February of this year, practices began to be daily.
It is a squad composed of fishermen and councilors, among other occupations, whose ages range from 18 to 42 years. None of them are dedicated to professional football and have combined their daily work with evening training.
Some are Wanderers fans and the island administratively belongs to the Valaparíso Region.
It is expected that the stadium has a capacity of between 1,100 and 1,200 people, Of which 400 may be sitting in the stands and the rest you will likely see standing around the low fence that surrounds the field.
This edition of the Chile Cup will have 94 matches in 11 days with round-trip keys starting with the quarterfinals, which will be played by 65 teams and whose draw will be held this Friday. EFE
