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Carlos Querioz spoke this Monday prior to the match between Colombia and Chile, for the second date of the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers. The match will be played in Santiago and the National Team coach spoke from there.
Team news: All players are good and ready to compete. We also know that unfortunately we cannot count on Arias, but he is in good hands and continuing on his road to recovery. We send you a very strong hug. We are in Santiago for Santiago.
Who will be the headlines? They are all starters, of course in the end a team always comes out with eleven, but for me personally they are all starters because they are all ready to compete. We will try to maintain the pressure and the identity of Colombia. I would like to talk about the options after the game because Mr. Rueda is aware of what I say, as well as what he says. It would not be very smart to shed light on what we are going to put on. The National Team is a team that includes the best players from Colombia. The most important thing is the team and that is why each one is in the positions that the team needs.
How have you worked these few days of training? The teams have less and less time and virtual training is very important to try to give you some tactical guidelines that are very important. We also hold on to the identity that we have worked on for the last year, with a winning mentality and with a team that knows what it has to do on the field. That is what gives us the most confidence.
How to counter the offensive work of Chile? Chile has good football on the wings, but not only there because they do very well in the center, they showed it against Uruguay. I don’t want the Colombian players to focus on Chile’s strengths. Our thing is to control our strengths and weaknesses because the art of winning is to compete and know how to use the good things we have. The mentality of the team is to magnify ourselves by not worrying so much about the rival. Players inside need to be confident and play good football: know when to attack and when to defend.
Queiroz press conference
Carlos Queiroz talks about the Colombia vs Chile National Team.
Will you use the same starting eleven? That the team that wins does not change is a conservative attitude of football. I think that one must change in order not to be predictable. The change is from a team that has a winning mentality. The more you earn, the more you change. The game against Chile cannot be done with the taste that we beat Venezuela, on the contrary, it is a new game and you have to have a new attitude.
Does the team already have their game idea? I am never satisfied because I always want more. We started more than a year ago and the team has demonstrated an identity, a culture of play that is getting stronger and stronger. When the coaching staff and the players are together there is a greater commitment and it gives us more strength to be confident.
Satisfied with Vargas? Not conceding goals is a collective job, not only for the goalkeeper, although he has a greater responsibility. When I arrived, I started a process with the goalkeepers to bring players closer together. The example is from Ukraine, which had to have the goalkeeper coach in a match. A year ago we did not think that Ospina was at the beginning of the Qualifying, but thanks to the work are Vargas, Montero, Quitana and Chaux.
What it asks of attackers: The most important thing is that if there is a chance to finish, don’t miss out. When a goal is lost in soccer, that changes a game. You have to play high-level football with that killer instinct. I ask forwards that the ball go into the sticks and if they do, the coach can keep his hair.
What is it like to play in times of pandemic? It is a context, atypical, difficult and sinister. Working under these conditions is difficult because health is something precious that cannot be put at risk. But soccer is the sport of the people and you have to keep this alive, as well as music. We know that people make sacrifices and we do too.
How to beat Chile again? We are going to forget the past because that is only winning or learning. What happened are only opportunities to improve the team. Thank God at the moment we have very good forwards and it is a better moment than the friendly matches because everyone is playing well.
Zapata and Muriel’s offensive: They are very good, but the individuals do not win the games and the goal of the points can only be done with everyone. I am friends with everyone, but my job is to make decisions. The path of failure is to try to please everyone. We talked together and many things have come out of the experiences of the players about how to face and win a game in Barranquilla.
His vision on football: I don’t like to intellectualize football, I like that the players enter the field and enjoy themselves, that they always play on the attack. That they prepare from the moment they get up, in the talk and that in the field they know when to attack and when to defend. It is impossible to have the ball the whole game. I cannot control nor do I know what Chile is going to do, but I do know what we can do. Chile has a very smart coach like Reinaldo Rueda, who knows us well.
