Chile ended up falling in the epilogue against Argentina for the second date of Group A of the Copa América. A painful defeat, as it seemed that everything ended with a blank score, as a result of the national team’s football recovery in the second half. However, the setback will not only be remembered for what happened on the field, also because Ricardo Gareca replaced Alexis Sanchez in the first substitution of the match. For years, this had not happened in La Roja.
Bad day
The Tocopillano had a poor performance against the Argentines. During the first half, he tried to get into the game, with individual actions to retain the ball, but he was surpassed by the trans-Andean defenders in most of the interventions. This turned out to be fatal, as Chile was left with no way out and every attempt to advance, to get the team out from behind, was unsuccessful. Argentina, then, attacked again and the defensive function in the National Team, at times, seemed to collapse.
Chile’s second game was just completed in USA, but so far Sánchez’s performance has been below expectations. Gareca innovated in the role of the tocopillano in La Roja and placed him as the first center forward in the context of the 1-4-4-2 game system implemented by the coach. It seemed that he would fulfill the role of offensive midfielder, behind Eduardo Vargas, but he has always acted alongside the other national attacker.
strong decision
Sánchez’s tactical dysfunctionality shows old data and the impression is that at this stage it has been accentuated, also in accordance with the fluctuations of the national collective functioning. The Tocopilla native insists on extending his individual interventions, slowing down collective attacking maneuvers and also becoming a prisoner of rival pressure actions. This last occurred on several occasions during the second half, against the Argentine defenders.
At 65 minutes, Gareca detected the problem and sent Marcos Bolados onto the field instead of Sánchez. Darío Osorio had already considerably improved his performance, Rodrigo Echeverría had more influence in the game and La Roja evidently improved. The team became lighter, more direct and fluid in offensive transitions, which had not happened in the first half, allowing Argentina to clearly dominate.
Obviously, the substitution did not go unnoticed. Seconds after leaving the field, there was speculation about a possible muscle injury to Sánchez as the trigger for the replacement. However, Chile’s own coach clarified the situation when asked about the reason for the variation in the formation of the eleventh, minutes after the match in New Jersey concluded: “It’s tactical, footballing, there’s nothing else about it.”
