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From www.soccernet.com, how the weakest team in South America gained respect! Go Philippines!!! Pls pass on to any Filipino Football Player, there is hope for all of us if we want it to happen... - Miguel _________________________________________________________ Thursday, March 11, 2004 |
| Venezuela emerge from obscurity |
| Brian Homewood |
| LIMA, March 11 (Reuters) - Until around two years ago, Venezuelans could not buy replica soccer shirts of their national soccer team - even if they wanted to. The side had one of the worst records in international football and aroused so little public interest that many people did not even know what colour they played in. Nowadays, the distinctive burgundy shirts are ubiquitous to sports shops around the country and the team routinely play their home matches to sellout crowds. There is even talk that the 'Red Wine team', who on Wednesday sank Honduras 2-1 in a friendly in Maracaibo, might qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The man credited with performing the turnaround is national team coach Richard Paez, a former international midfielder who remembers only too well what it was like in the old days. Venezuela, where baseball has long been king, have won more World Cup qualifiers in the three years under Paez than they did in the previous 37. Before Paez replaced Argentine Omar Pastoriza in 2001, they had managed only three victories since they first ventured into the World Cup qualifiers in 1965. Since he took over, they have won six times including their last two matches in the qualifying competition for 2006.
DARKEST DAYS Paez says his recipe for success is simple: he has given the players self-belief and changed the idea that Venezuela's only aim is to avoid losing heavily. 'In the old days, we knew we were going to lose and the target was to avoid a thrashing,' he told Reuters during a visit to Peru for this week's Copa America draw. 'But we usually got thrashed anyway. 'Now we try to play with balance, to attack as well as defend.' Paez played for Venezuela during some of their darkest days including an 11-0 loss to Argentina in 1975. 'When I was a player, it was in a period when we gave too much respect to our opponents. We studied our opponents so much that we forget to analyse and respect ourselves,' he said. The manner in which the team repeatedly changed their colours was symbolic of their lack of direction. 'We played in burgundy, then with stripes, we had a period when we played in red, then in blue, and amid all the variety we started to lose our identity.' 'Until around six years ago, you could go up to someone in the street, ask them the colour of the national team shirt and they wouldn't know. They never used to sell replica shirts. 'But one of our aims was to give the team some identity and we've done this because people know who we are.'
CONSTANT CRITIC After retiring as a player, Paez studied medicine and qualified as a doctor. But he remained a constant critic of the way the national team were handled, something which he said cost him a chance to coach the national side earlier in his career. 'I think they might have finally given me the job thinking I would be a failure, as if to say, you talk so much, you've criticised us so much, now it's your turn. 'But time has proved me right and that we have what it takes to compete.' Paez said a national football structure was still lacking, although his team's success was inspiring improvements at grass roots level. 'If you try and explain that all this is the result of a long-term project which has been carried out in Venezuela, you won't be able to do so. 'It's not been the result of a long-term job. It's something which has happened. 'There's been a lot of perseverance by a lot of people but there hasn't been a national policy for turning young players into international footballers, of looking after them from the junior stage to the professional stage.' Regardless of whether Venezuela qualify for their first World Cup, Paez said he had already achieved his initial target. 'The last two or three years have been historic. In our last 12 home games, all have had more than 20,000 people; this is unprecedented for the Venezuela team. 'I think the important thing is to achieve what we have - to make a country which didn't believe in Venezuelan football into one that now believes we have a chance.'
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