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This week the Valle del Cauca will take over as coach of the Colombian national team. Retake the winning path in the Qatar World Cup qualifier and fight the America’s Cup, its challenges for 2021.
It is not the best time to assume the position of coach of the Colombian national team, seventh in the tie to Qatar 2022, with four points out of twelve possible, but above all with a tense internal environment in the squad after the painful defeats against Uruguay and Ecuador. But the Valle del Cauca strategist Reinaldo Rueda will be made official this week as the new helmsman of the national team, after several weeks of negotiations to terminate his contract with Chile
On Saturday afternoon, the president of the National Professional Soccer Association of that country, Pablo Milad, confirmed that “everything is settled and he is no longer the coach of the red team.” That agreement was what was missing to be able to stamp his signature on the contract that binds him to the Colombian Federation.
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Seventeen years ago, in January 2004, Rueda replaced Francisco Maturana, who had achieved a point of twelve in the 2006 tie against Germany. In the end, Colombia finished sixth, with 24 points, to one from Uruguay, who achieved the quota to the repechage.
The Valle del Cauca led 43 games with the senior team, with 18 games won, thirteen tied and twelve lost, 58 goals for and 42 against, for a performance of 51.94%. He was fourth in the 2004 Copa América in Peru and the 2005 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Later he had a successful passage through Honduras and Ecuador. He qualified and led those teams to the 2010 World Cups in South Africa and Brazil 2014, respectively. Later, he also demonstrated his club skills and won six titles with Atlético Nacional, between 2015 and 2017, including the 2016 Copa Libertadores.
After a brief stint at Flamengo in Brazil, in 2018 he became coach of Chile’s senior team, with which he led 27 games, with eight wins, nine draws and ten defeats, 35 goals for and the same number against. Those results generated much criticism, beyond the fact that the team supported him. The managers were not satisfied with their work, but they could not pay the high compensation that their dismissal meant.
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For this reason, given the departure of Carlos Queiroz from Colombia and the offer of Colf Fútbol, the agreement between Rueda and the ANFP was imminent. He was not comfortable in Chile and they did not want him there.
So, despite the complicated situation in the qualifying table, with four very complicated games ahead (Brazil and Argentina in Barranquilla and Paraguay and Peru as visitors), the Valle del Cauca strategist took up the challenge.
He knows the group of players perfectly and considers that he can take them to Qatar in 2022. For that, he would have his main collaborators always at his side: Alexis Mendoza, Bernardo Redín and Carlos Eduardo Velasco.
In the squad, goals are what there is. And every weekend the gunners are in charge of confirming it. On Saturday Duván Zapata and Luis Fernando Muriel extended their scoring streak with Atalanta in a 4-1 win over Benevento. And on Sunday those who scored were Hugo Rodallega in Denizlispor’s 1-1 win against Rizespor, for the Turkish Super League, and Alfredo Morelos scored a double in Glasgow Rangers’ 2-1 win over Aberdeen in Scotland. Rafael Santos Borré also constantly celebrates these days, with the Argentine River Plate.
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What does concern Rueda is the lack of generation of football. Therefore, his first mission will be to travel to Europe to meet with James Rodríguez and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado. Juan Fernando Quintero and Edwin Cardona are also in his immediate plans, but he does not rule out any player who can contribute ideas and imbalance in attack, such as Radamel Falcao García himself.
As he did in his first stage with the national team, Rueda wants to integrate the work of all the national teams and will try to give the same identity to the under-20s and under-17s.
Colf Fútbol will announce the duration of the contract with Rueda, which was the point that separated them last week. They offered to finish the process to Qatar, but he wanted them to ensure one more cycle, at least until 2026.
That would be the safest way for the coach to guarantee his continuity no matter what happens in the next games of the tie and in the Copa América, in which he himself admits that, as the host, Colombia must be the protagonist and give the Fight.
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Before the game against Brazil, on March 25, there will be no FIFA dates, so Rueda and his coaching staff will not have the chance to meet until three days before the game against scratch, at the Metropolitan Stadium in Barranquilla. That is why you will have to appeal to personalized work, motivational talks and videoconferences with the team, to explain the ideas and the style of play that you intend.
