[Sports] Game Vision | José Peseiro must choose well and put each piece in its place

[G h o s t l y.]

Player performance is sometimes an enigma. Footballers who perform in their teams, make goals and win titles, suddenly lose their powers in the grass, when they have to wear the national jersey of their teams. In Brazil they have a qualifier for these footballers who shine in their clubs and go off at the scratch: love them. They are the yellow players, who fade on the field and leave an image of inconsistency, doubt or simple mediocrity, when defending the Canarinha.
 

The outstanding performance of the Venezuelan players abroad, with Darwin Machís, Yangel Herrera, Yeferson Soteldo and Jefferson Savarino as standard bearers of that brilliant performance in Spain and Brazil, has opened the debate on why we do not see them shine with the same brilliance in the Vinotinto. Is it the fault of Rafael Dudamel and now of the Portuguese José Peseiro that the players do not display their entire repertoire of fakes, dribbles, dribbles, passes and goals in national team games?

The truth is that no coach, no matter how genius, is able to take advantage of the gifts of his players, if he does not have the necessary work time to apply his concepts, ensure that the players assimilate and apply them effectively on the field . Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, the highest expression of football-art in the last decade, was the product of years of training by a group of talented players, led by Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Piqué, at the La Masia academy. There they learned the secrets of possession football, the free man, the triangulations to progress together and attack and defend as a block.

Guardiola added his knowledge and tactical obsessions in a process that began full of uncertainty, as Martí Perarnau tells us in his book El largo camino de Pep. With daily work, the Catalan coach consolidated his football imaginary until he made Barsa one of the best teams in football history.

Players who reach the national teams do so in a few days and the coaches hardly have time for a few practices. In the case of Vinotinto, the best collective performance has come after the technicians have had quality hours to instill their game ideas and test them.

It happened with Richard Páez, when he concentrated the selection for the 2001 Copa América, and after going through that tournament, the players assimilated his ideas and achieved the victories in a row that produced the Vinotinto boom. It also went through the process of César Farías, who completed a preparation phase in Dallas, USA, and all that work led to the unprecedented fourth place for Venezuela in the 2011 Copa América in Argentina.

Peseiro took the national team in the most complicated situation, in the midst of the pandemic, without blank matches and with a squad full of travel problems. It is impossible to demand that the national team compete and offer the best individual and collective performance.

In the qualifying rounds, the technician's job is almost reduced to putting together the puzzle and placing each piece in its proper place, taking into account the current status of each of those summoned. If Soteldo breaks it in Brazil with Santos and Machís does the same in Spain, Peseiro must take advantage of that vital impulse that the players bring to try to extend it in the national team. In the next games against Brazil and Chile, the new coach will not have much time for rehearsals either. Their ability to make the right choice for each player and place them in the position where they perform the most, will be essential to survive these two most demanding tests.

Caracas FC and Estudiantes had a decent performance
The illusion that Caracas aroused in the Copa Libertadores should not be belittled. Noel Sanvicente's team did more than it could, if taking into consideration the situation of Venezuelan soccer that since last March had been stopped.

The Reds' squad is made up of a group of guys without professional and international filming, which adds more value to the points they obtained in the tournament. Qualifying for the South American Cup, of course, is a consolation prize, because until the last minutes in the game against Boca they had the chance to get to the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores.

The new challenge will be against one of the big clubs in Brazil, Vasco Da Gama, which is going through low hours at Brasileirao, where it occupies 17th place in the classification table, after five consecutive defeats. Caracas plays on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro and will have the advantage of closing at the UCV Olympic Stadium on November 4. If he regains solidarity to defend, without falling into the excesses and recklessness that condemned him against Medellín at home, the Reds have the option to stand up and fight to keep moving forward.

Estudiantes de Mérida also had a decent performance in the tournament. He recovered his style of play, complicated all the rivals in the group and showed a new breed of footballers from the courtyard who are already the basis of a lucid team with the ball, brave and fighting. To qualify for the South American Cup as the third of its key, it was also a fair reward for the magnificent effort of the academy, which now has to fight against Coquimbo Unido de Chile.