La Roja fell 3-0 on the seventh date of the World Cup qualifiers, showing a very low level of play and confirming serious errors by coach Ricardo Gareca. On Tuesday, the now second to last team in South America receives a Bolivian team that has just crushed Venezuela (4-0).
The concrete fact, in a few words, is that tonight in Buenos Aires the Chilean National Team was thrashed by Argentina by 3-0, in a match valid for the seventh round of the World Cup qualifiers. What is obvious, given the score, is that the team led by Ricardo Gareca played a terrible match at the Monumental stadium, against an albiceleste team that does not shine (even less so now without Lionel Messi), but has a pragmatic game that allows it to achieve good results.
And finally, the hard statistics show that La Roja, with five points, is second to last in the South American table with five points, only surpassing Peru, which is experiencing a worse crisis.
Poor selection of the players called up, players placed in positions where they do not play regularly, poor collective performance and the already assumed inability to do damage in front of the rival goals, were some of the reasons that influenced this new defeat of Chile.
If Gareca’s objective was only to rescue a draw, during the first 45 minutes he was achieving it, containing and reaching the rival area very little. The solitary figure of Eduardo Vargas up front was never understood, nor was the work that Loyola had to do, who, being a full-back, was positioned higher than the chosen wing-back.
That is to say, a disorder that translated into trying to bet on the old argument of the mediocre: either the rival makes a mistake, which Argentina did not do, or a gift from heaven falls from a dead ball.
And Chile came close to that, because just before half-time a header from Matías Catalán hit the left post of Dibu Martínez. In a way, that showed the Chilean team that they were not playing against a “machine” and that the less than astute albiceleste defence also had weak points that could be breached.
But as always happens, just when Chile thought it would be able to consolidate its good form and equalise the score in the second half of the match, the first goal for the home team came through Alexis Mc Allister, in the 48th minute, after taking advantage of a “screen” by Lautaro Martínez that exposed the innocence of the national defence.
After that, Argentina controlled the action and Gareca tried changes that were more negative than beneficial. That is the coach’s sole responsibility, because although the entry of Carlos Palacios gave another air to the national offense, players like Claudio Baeza and an unforgivable error in the exit of the area, allowed the trans-Andeans to score the 2-0. The one who took advantage of the gift was Julián Álvarez, at 84′.
This was the knockout blow for a Chilean team that was already disconcerted before their rivals’ second goal. Already wandering and disoriented on the field in the final minutes, La Roja was so generous that even substitute Paulo Dybala was able to score, with the entire right wing of the defense at his disposal, the 3-0 at 90+1, sealing the match.
Worrying, not only because of the result or the already known shortcomings of the national team, but because of how lost the team was as a whole, a team that did not play as a team. On Tuesday they have the obligation to recover at home against Bolivia.
