The Shocking Downfall of Chile's National Team

less than 10 years ago Chile were powerhouses of South American football they won backto back Copa Americas in 2015 and 2016 overcoming Messi's Argentina in the final on both occasions they took Brazil to penalties on home soil in the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup and even their Club sides were immensely competitive with Universe at ad the Chile most famously lifting the Copa Sur Americana in 2011 at their peak in early 2016 Chile were ranked third in the world above the last four FIFA World Cup winners Germany Spain Italy and Brazil fast forward eight long

years and Chile failed to qualify for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups they look unlikely to qualify for the 2026 World Cup despite an expanded format currently sat bottom in the comb Bowl qualification standings following their worst ever start to a qualifying campaign and they were knocked out in the group stage of the 2024 cop America in the summer having failed to score a single goal at the time of recording Chile haven't won a competitive football match in over 12 months and they've only won one in more than two and a half years since

winning their second successive Copa America Chile have lost games against Tunisia Honduras and Venezuela from third in the world in 2016 lar Roa are now ranked 49th in the FIFA world rankings the third lowest of any combo ball nation and Below Panama kataar and Slovakia it is the steepest decline of any Men's National Team during that time in November of last year during an international break in which Chile Drew with Paraguay and lost against Ecuador a problem with the plumbing at Colo Colo a stadio Monumental saw Chile's players showered in their own excrements both figuratively

and literally therefore Chile's national team has become a shower of but how did it happen not specifically the shower problem just to be clear I'm not a plumber how did Chile go from being a team of superstars which twice dethroned Peak Messi's Argentina to be crowned as the kings of South American football to showering in their own feces and losing at home against Bolivia in less time than it took for China to build more High-Speed Rail than the rest of the world has combined or for Manchester United to realize that Anthony martial probably wasn't going

to become a title winning number nine those are two of the greatest Feats of human engineering of course I'm sure you'd all agree well that's what today's video is all about so sit back relax and join me on a journey from The Andy mountains to the Pacific Ocean to the southernmost country in the world which is as long and narrow as Peter Crouch as we take a closer look at the shocking downfall of Chile's national team and Chile and football as a whole there is a school of thought which argues that Chile's recent struggles are

nothing new Chile's two-time copor America winners were a golden generation of epic proportions and like Denmark Romania or Bulgaria's golden generation eras before them what we are now seeing is simply an inevitable regression to the norm there is some truth to that claim outside of when they hosted the World Cup in 1962 prior to 1998 Chile had never made it out of the group stage and before that 2010 golden generation Chile had only qualified for one out of the last six World Cups dating all the way back to 1982 and they literally never won the

copper America Chile's 2024 Cooper America group stage exit is viewed as being symbolic of a catastrophic decline but they exited at the exact same stage in 2004 which was their last copper before the golden generation era began to kick in it was a freak occurrence that Chile produced players of the the caliber of clao Bravo Gary madell Arturo Vidal Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas two of whom would be nominated for the balandor who all peaked up pretty much the exact same time they benefited from excellent management when they were all at their best and like

almost all Trophy winning teams they had a little bit of good fortune along the way such as the being two coper Americas squeezed into the two years in which they were at their Peak due to the coper America centenario and beat in Argentina twice on penalties having drawn nil nil in both Finals within normal time even with all of that context though regarding Chile's historic standing and the abnormality of their golden generation their likely failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup despite an expanded format represents a new low no competitive victories in 12 months

is absurd and the sheer speed of that decline has been something else in other words a Down fall was always inevitable but one of this magnitude most certainly was not that's not to say that it can't be explained though thankfully otherwise this would be a waste of time wouldn't it one of the things that made Chile's golden team so special was their incredible aggression intensity and relentlessness it was a strategy implemented by the great Marcela Elsa who managed Chile at the beginning of their new wave of superstars between 2007 and 2011 and it suited them

down to the ground Chile's young fire Brands like Mell Vidal and Sanchez all had terrific stamina and athleticism making them capable of out running and out fighting physically almost any opponent it was enough to take Chile to their first World Cup in 12 years in 2010 where they beat huras and Switzerland and only lost narrowly against eventual Champions Spain to progress to The Knockout stage losing 3-0 against Brazil in the round of 16 being also resigned in 2011 owing to a new fa president being elected which we will come on to and he was replaced

by cloudo borgi borgi lasted less than two years losing his job following a run of five straight defeats but the intensity of beable was resumed along with some crucial Alterations by Jorge salii who got the job in December 2012 Sali already had an excellent reputation within Chilean football having guided Universe ad to Chile to a Chilean Prem Division and Copa sud Americana double in 2011 which was the first Continental trophy a Chile Club had won since Colo Cola won the libertadores in 1991 under sowy Chile Honda style of football which was often referred to as

swarming incredibly entertaining Chile played with a virtually unrivaled intensity and athleticism literally swarming the ball as the name suggests whenever they lost it it was a high-risk strategy invariably opening up gaps if teams could beat their press but Chile was so effective in their press and crucially so disciplined in falling back into shape when their press failed that it proved to be a nightmare for teams to play against it helps of course that this style coincided with Chile's best players playing the best football of their careers by the time of the 2015 Copa America Captain

clao Bravo was Barcelona's number one and a just won a La Liga Champions League and and copel Ray treble Gary madell just enjoyed an excellent debut campaign for Inter Milan uro viala just won his fourth straight Sera title and reached a Champions League final as a star man at Juventus and Alexis Sanchez was coming off the back of an or inspiring debut campaign at Arsenal in which he won their player of the Season award and made the PFA Team of the Year following three seasons at Barcelona sowy like the Elsa stepped down due to disagreements

with the incoming president of the AFP the governing body which oversees professional football in Chile in January 2016 and though his successor Juan Antonio pitty was able to win the coper America centenario making it an extraordinary set of successive triumphs for a national team that had never previously been crowned South American Champions overall Chile looked a lot less formidable than they had done under s PA and after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup pitty resigned there would be one last harah for Chile's golden team who beat Japan Ecuador and Colombia to make the

semi-finals of the 2019 cop America where they lost 3-0 against Peru but failure to qualify for the World Cup in 2018 effectively marked the end of Chile's short-lived but utterly mesmerizing golden generation the same thing that had made them so successful and so difficult to play against their high intensity and superhuman athleticism made their downfall even more rapid and an aging Chile team so unsuccessful and easy to play against where s's team of 20s something swarmed Ronaldo Rueda and Martin lazar's teams of 30s something's buzzed about rarely winning the ball back in areas where they

could hurt their opponents and leaving massive gaps in behind them which they lack the athleticism to recover from in some ways even now at least 5 years on from Chile's golden generation's final modum of alast hara this remain a serious problem Chile's last manager Eduardo bariso who previously managed the likes of Sela vgo Seva and athletic bilbow resigned less than 18 months into a 4-year deal in November 2023 having won just four of his 16 games in charge and having overseen Chile's worst ever start to a World Cup qualifying campaign he was replaced by the

vastly experienc Ricardo geka in January 2024 who has an excellent reputation Within South American football gerer has managed some of the biggest clubs in Argentina and Colombia but he is best known for his more than 7ear stint in charge of Peru during which time he transformed the national team's fortunes gka took Peru from 59th in the world when he first arrived not having qualified for a World Cup since 1982 to the top 10 of the FIFA world rankings for the first time in their history just 18 months into the job above England Italy and Uruguay

they their first World Cup in almost 40 years in 2018 and most notably of all the semi-finals of the 2015 Copa America where Peru only lost narrowly against eventual winners Chile and the final of the 2019 coper America where Peru beat Chile 3-0 in the semis and only lost in the final against Brazil gka like a couple of Chile managers of old plays aggressive high intensity and very carefully choreographed football that became difficult to orchestrate with aging Peru Squad but with Chile G has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire at this

point it is worth acknowledging that Chile have actually performed better under gaka they have looked more organized and harder to break down they have made strong starts in a couple of games and they have started winning the ball back further up the pitch again creating chances and scoring the odd goal most notably in G's first two games in charge Chile traveled to Europe where they threshed Albania 3 nil and went toe-to-toe with France only losing that game 3-2 it is third game in charge a CPR America warm-up fixture and friendly Chile beat Paraguay 3-0 at

the tournament itself however lar Roa went out in the group stage drawing with Canada and Peru losing against Argentina and failing to score a single goal they haven't won a game since then despite the improvements in Chile's performance levels including a 2-1 defeat against Brazil during the current International break where they only lost the game in the 89th minute the problem for chile is that they lack the athleticism to maintain gea's pressing style tiring in games becoming more open and eventually being punished as much as Chile have lost Talent since the height of their golden

generation and they have the loss of physicality and athleticism has been almost as significant at their Peak Arturo Vidal and Charles aranguez could go to battle with the best Midfield within International Football and invariably they would come out on top Chile dominated games not by dominating possession but by dominating the physical battle suffocating their opponents in possession and quite literally imposing themselves upon them gka seems to want to do something similar but his midfielders are of a completely different profile his difficulties coming up with a solution to that problem have been exhibited in Chile's last

two games in which gka has named two entirely different midfields against Bolivia during the last International break flamingo's Eric Pulga Club America's Victor AA melan's Dario aario and coo colo's Carlos Palos formed a Midfield Diamond whereas in Chile's defeat against Brazil during the current break coo colo's estan pavz partnered Hur Rodrigo chavaria at the base of Chile's Midfield with Club America's Diego Valdez in front of them pavz etaria and Valdez are 3429 and 30 years old yet they have won fewer than half as many caps between them as our Toro Vidal has won on his

own that is not to say that Vidal should still be starting just to be clear Chile look a much better team without him now and without Mell and dare I say it even Alexis Sanchez at this stage who is Chile's greatest player of all time the point is that the new blood in G's Midfield are already quite old they AR capable of playing with the speed and intensity that he wants and put bluntly they are nowhere near as good as the players who proceeded them were at their Peak Chile managers for some time now have

received criticism from all angles both for dropping national team icons and for continuing to select them from opposing quarters gka has been more ruthless than any of his predecessors all be it he still took a 41-year-old cladio Bravo and a 35-year-old Alexis Sanchez to the America but the reality is the reason successive Chile managers have been slow to replace aging Superstars isn't solely through a fear of backlash but primarily because they didn't feel as though there were many compelling Alternatives we have addressed the Tactical Technical and Personnel reasons for Chile's dramatic downfall on the ground

but that raises a much more macro question regarding Chilean football why is it stop producing great or even very good players on this front there are a couple of key reasons or theories one is the wave of privatization that has taken place in Chilean football over the last 20 years in many ways Chile's golden generation were the last generation of Chilean players who were developed in the pre-privatization era in 2005 with many Chilean clubs facing economic hardship a new law was passed which brought about a wave of privatization which included the country's biggest clubs like

hoo Colo and universa AD de Chile this led to a short-term influx of cash but little to none of that cash was actually invested in the long-term future of Chilean football in actual fact long-term Investments like infrastructure facilities and Youth Development were neglected deteriorating as a result of privatization because they were considered less important to private investors than they were to the members who previously owned Chilean clubs instead Chile's biggest clubs diverted their resources towards signing older and more established players with relatively High wage demands most of whom were and still are from Argentina and

most of whom to be honest haven't been particularly impressive this constitutes a two-pronged assault on Chilean Youth Development firstly it is being neglected at source through fewer resources and interests being invested in it and secondly youth team players who somehow managed to still navigate the system are being overlooked when previously they would have been given first team opportunities and therefore the opportunity to develop in favor of those aging and often very underwhelming foreign players who have done little to improve the standard of Chilean football in this sense as in so many others there are parallels

between the plate of both Chilean and Mexican football the latter of which I covered in a documentary about a year ago it's not true to say that there aren't any talented Mexican or Chan Academy prospects despite all of the obstacles the real problem is that the obstacles don't stop there opportunities are few and far between meaning Academy graduates to term professional sometimes don't make their senior Debs until they're 21 or even 22 years old in sharp contrast to talented youngsters in Argentina Uruguay or Brazil Who tend to develop much better as a result and those

who are thrown in at 17 18 or have become so abnormal that they are built up Beyond any and all reasonable expectations which can often go to their heads either in terms of the pressure becoming insurmountable and overwhelming or their egos exploding and their work rate deteriorating or some combination of the two it feels as though whenever a Chilean registers their senior debut for a big club before turning 20 there are immediate calls for them to be called up to the national team it is indicative of a level of desperation but it's also unhealthy in

terms of their personal development as is the case in Mexico though albeit to a lesser extent there is money in Chile and football quite often more money than young players can earn abroad which means that even if they're not playing many of them stick around to pick up a healthy paycheck rather than pushing for moves and maybe taking a shortterm financial hit to benefit their own development longterm this is a particular problem in League remx where teams pay some pretty mediocre players far more than they could earn in either Europe Argentina or Brazil but Chilean

agents who are among the most unscrupulous anywhere in the world and we are talking about football agents here so that is saying something often look to get their clients moves to Mexico as a result Victor Aila for example who won L alcadia tournament with Chile's under 20 team in 2015 joined lier MX neax from haiat when he was only 19 years old and is back playing in Mexico now following a season in Russia age 26 diler has only won 16 caps for Chile in total and is one of seven Chileans currently competing in League remx

he's not the only promising young Chilean to Fall by the wayside going back further Manchester United signed Angelo Enriquez for 4 million EUR after he scored 11 goals in 17 games for univers to Chile as a 17-year-old but he never registered a first team appearance at Old Trafford now age 30 Enriquez has won just 14 caps for chile only scoring two goals and currently plays his Club football for lamia in the Greek Super League elsewhere matus Gutierrez became Chile's youngest debutant since Alexis Sanchez at the age of 17 in 2011 but 13 years on that

is still his only senior appearance for the national team yo la made his International debut at 18 in 2017 while starring for universe and and Chile but was one of those to make an early but unproductive move to leager MX also to nixer incidentally and has never added to that solitary cap now aged 26 and 20-year-old Yori Thompson who looked to be one of Chile's brightest prospects in a very long time was suspended last year after a video of him committing domestic violence on his then girlfriend at a nightclub was released to the public he

was stated by coo Colo because this is football that we're talking about where violence against women is as normalized as violence against animals in a slaughter house but literally the following day yet more videos of Thompson committing domestic abuse were released online charged with attempted femicide that is attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend and criminal contempt with his trial still pending Thompson moved to Russia in January 2024 joining FC orenberg a Russian Premier League side owned by Russia's majority state-owned energy conglomerates gazprom he hasn't and hopefully never will win a senior C for chile as a

result there are many such examples not necessarily involving players charged with attempted murder but who have failed to live up to their potential for a range of both systemic and individual reasons though are plenty of problems with Chilean football before privatization it would be stupid to pretend otherwise but it would be equally stupid to pretend that privatization hasn't actually made most of those problems whether that be corruption or financial crises even worse Argentina's recently elected president Javier Mill by the way having observed the extraordinary success story that is privatized football in Chile has attempted to

privatize football in Argentina where the current system which has heralded a World Cup and successive Copa Americas in the last 3 years clearly isn't working his reforms were blocked by a court in Buenos sarus last month but it would be funny if out of everything ruining Argentinian football was what brought him down the latest economic crisis to hit Chilean football came in 2023 when Chile Supreme Court outlawed offshore sports betting and gambling firms who were the largest sectoral sponsors of Chilean football that was neither a healthy nor a sustainable long-term Arrangement but the ban resulted

in an instant funding crisis and a metaphorical rug being pulled from underneath Chilean football's feet from which the sport is still reeling Chile is the most developed country in Latin America according to the human development index as well as having the highest GDP per capita in the region but sport as a whole not just football has long been incredibly corrupt and poorly managed Chile have only ever won 15 medals at the Summer Olympics which is fewer than lva and the Bahamas and four times fewer than North Korea New Zealand a country of just 5 million

people compared to almost 20 million in Chile won more than that to the 2024 games alone Chile are one of the few countries to have been banned from competing in a FIFA World Cup the 1994 World Cup to be specific after goalkeeper Roberto roas pained a head injury to get a 1990 World Cup qualifier against Brazil abandoned roas pretended to have been struck by a firework from the crowd but had in fact cut his own face with a blade concealed in his glove roas was banned from football for life in what was described as one

of football's most shameful sagas meanwhile Chile were Bann from competing in qualifying for the next World Cup that is the Scandal involving Chile in football which is probably best known to an international audience but domestically Scandal chaos and Corruption are the norm earlier I mentioned Marcelo be Elsa's resignation owing to a change of anfp and afj presidents in 2011 the anfp is the national Professional Football Association which is the governing body for all professional football in Chile meanwhile the afch is the Chilean Football Federation which is the governing body which oversees all football in Chile

Harold May Nichols a former Sports journalist became president of both organizations in 2007 and it was he who appointed be Elsa who in turn oversaw Chile's qualification for the 2010 World Cup be Elsa was supposed to stay with the national team until 2015 but in 2010 he stated that he would resign if Jorge sagia won the presidential election ahead of main Nichols sovia proceeded to win the election and be Elsa followed through with his threat May Nichols successfully challenged the election process meaning that sagia never actually became president with Sergio haray subsequently elected in the

follow-up elections in 2011 main Nichols who was a prominent I of FIFA's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar was later banned for 7 years by the FIFA Ethics Committee though they didn't provide any explanation as to the decision at the time FIFA later claimed that Maine Nichols had sought family favors and I quote ignored his responsibility as a high ranking FIFA official someone who was expected to act with the utmost neutrality and integrity in order to pursue his own personal interests end quote main Nichols successfully appealed his ban

through the court of arbitration for Sports in 2017 his successor Serio hadway was forced to resign Jordan FIFA's 2015 corruption case accused of taking bribes which exceeded $1.5 million he entered into a plea deal with the FBI and he was subsequently issued with a lifetime ban from all football related activities this was the president it should be noted who was in charge of Chile's golden generation at their very Zenith and who appointed Jorge Sali who W Chile the 2015 coper America there was plenty of corruption financial trouble and other problems in Chile and football before

privatization just as there was within the anfp under harway but as one Chilean effectively put it Chilean football has gone from being run by corrupt shyers who were passionate and cared about football to corrupt Chasers who don't care about football it is a subtle yet significant difference and it shows Chile and football as a whole not just the national team is a mess right now the showers at Colo Colo the country's biggest Club showering the national team in feces isn't just an amusing metaphor for the current state of the Chilean game it is indicative of

how facilities have been neglected over the last two decades even at the highest level Chilean clubs have never been routine winners or even finalists in South America's Continental competitions but a bit like Turkish clubs in the Champions League they were always a nightmare to play against even for the continent's biggest clubs they were difficult to break down and they would go on occasional runs deep in the liberta rores and sud Americana nowadays also like Turkish clubs they are a light touch almost no one fears them and the only runs that they have are the ones

that come straight back back up through their showers it is a sad State of Affairs for Chilean football fans which combined with often dangerous or just down rate unwelcoming stadiums due to thuggish fans not being dealt with and infrastructure upgrades not having been implemented and globalization and a more affluent population who are able to access a much higher quality of football Which is less dogged by corruption online and on their televisions is at risk of creating a whole generation who are either more interested in football outside of Chile than within it or are simply less

interested in football in general of course making Chile in football less appealing means lower attendances lower viewing figures and therefore less Revenue creating a vicious cycle which no one seems to have any willingness or Genuine suggestions to address the average attendance in the Chilean Premier Division in 2023 itself massively inflated by Colo Colo was under 7,000 so what next Chilean football is in crisis it has fallen behind Ecuadorian paraguayan and on the international stage at least even Venezuelan football from such a recent High Point in which Chile ruled South America that seemed Unthinkable but it

doesn't have to be existential one of the problems with privatization in general is that it takes great political will for it to be overturned and it can be both legally and economically challenging the funding crisis at clubs in Chile presents that opportunity but leftist president Gabriel borich a Universidad catala fan who was elected in 2022 has expressed little will in instigating major reforms in football outside of calling for a clampdown on violence and hooliganism within stadiums that is an important issue no doubt but it alone is not going to be decisive in transforming The Fortunes

of Chilean football corruption is a cancer which can be masked when the stars align and a freak generation emerges all at once and has outstanding leadership but under normal circumstances its perniciousness is revealed Chilean football is currently hideously corrupt dreadfully mismanaged and it is now owned by people who don't remotely have its best interests at heart there are green shoots of optimism Dario aoro a talented Winger who has escaped the mad house and is now playing for midgeland in Denmark who have an excellent track record when it comes to developing young players a 19-year-old forward

Damian pitaro who recently joined Udin aay in siia are just two examples but for Chilean football to undergo a major Renaissance ideally all three of those structural and systemic problems need to be addressed that is probably Pie in the Sky unfortunately it shouldn't be but it is even when Chile were at their extraordinary Peak they only had two out of three which in the words of Meatloaf ain't bad right now however the idea of fixing just one of them seems almost hopelessly idealistic so long as that remains the case it doesn't really matter what system

Ricardo gka plays how high presses up the pitch or which youngster he throws in at the deep end as a long-term replacement for Eduardo Vargas Chilean football will remain deep in the doldrums that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed it or found it remotely informative I hope that was the case obviously let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments interested to hear them especially if you're Chile but you know also if you're not and uh it goes without

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whole lot more should be down in the video description below cheers