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Bolivia Team Guide

A bleak atmosphere pervades the Bolivian national team at the moment and the country that finished bottom of the World Cup qualifiers in October 2005 has little realistic hope of improvement. Their squad is made up largely of players who ply their trade in the Bolivian league, not the highest standard of football therefore on the continent.

In the last edition of the Copa America Bolivia finished winless and bottom of the group without having scored a goal a record that had been carried over from 1999. Their best recent performance came when they hosted the tournament, at altitude, in 1997.

New coach Erwin Sanchez has largely resisted the temptation to stick with Bolivia’s aging Golden generation, (yes, they had one once when they qualified for the World Cup in 1994) and the manager has bravely decided to try some of the younger talent available to him for this tournament. The most recognisable name to English eyes will be one-time Middlesborough forward Jaime Moreno who had two barren seasons at the Riverside managing just two goals in 25 appearances before he moved onto the MLS.

Another problem for Sanchez is that the hard-up Bolivian FA has been unable to arrange many friendlies as the majority of potential opponents have little interest playing on the ‘world’s ceiling’. Therefore expensive away games need to be sorted out which the influential clubs refuse to release their players for. This chaotic situation has been mirrored in the appointment of Sanchez who was serving a suspension as a player for head-butting a referee during a league match but surprisingly named national team coach. Tactics, with the lack of friendlies, are hard to predict although Bolivia lined up as with a 4-5-1 formation in a recent friendly against Ireland.

Both goalkeepers have been selected from the national league in Sergio Galarza (Oriente Pertrolero) and Hugo Suarez (Wilstermann)

Juan Pena is the most experienced defender and has been playing outside of Bolivia for some years since he moved to Argentina in 1993. Pena, currently with Villarreal in Spain although not one of the regular squad members, has over 70 caps to his name and is a solid tackler. He should be joined in defence by Ronald Raldes who has been with Rosario Central in Argentina for 3 seasons. Lorigo Alvarez may also be in line an experienced defender he is plying his trade with Paraguayan side Cerro Porteno and played in the 2001 and 2004 Copa America for Bolivia.

In the midfield Ronald Garcia is the obvious choice � having been capped 23 times for the Bolivians and playing his football in Greece with Aris Salonika, he will be expected to hold the midfield line. Gualberto Mojica may well be selected alongside him who has recently transferred to Pacos Ferreira in Portugal after a season with Romanian team Cluj. As well as being selected for the full squad he is also captain of the u-23 squad, and is considered one if the brighter prospects of a country that hasn’t produced a great deal in recent years by way of football talent.

Going forward down the right will be Joselito Vaco a player who has returned to Bolivian football after a mediocre spell in the MLS first with Dallas Burn and then with New York Metrostars. However, he was unable to live up to his billings in America and he returned to Blooming in 2005. He has since been recalled to the national team and could yet recover his form. At this stage it is unclear who will be playing down the left side of the midfield.

Juan Carlos Arce could be an option up front he is currently on loan with Corinthians, the Sao Paulo based giants, and since arriving in January has managed 3 goals. His international record is very good though, scoring 15 goals in 27 appearances. Jaime Moreno has already been mentioned and could, if Bolivia adopts a 5 man midfield, play from the left hand side looking to try and support the attack. He has been all but ignored by the national team since 1997 whilst becoming the all time joint-leading scorer in the MLS with 106 goals but has been recalled to the national team for the recent friendly against Ireland. Perhaps since the game was played in the States the Federation figured it would be cheaper to call him up rather than fly someone from Bolivia? Moreno’s performance was enough to earn him a place back in this squad and he knows that at 33 this his is last chance to improve upon what is until now a poor record at international level (63 appearances, only 9 goals).

Bolivia will be pleased to have been drawn in the easy Group A but will have the pressure on right from the off when they face hosts Venezuela in the 2nd game of the tournament. Sanchez and his management team will be keen to pile the pressure onto their hosts and look to exploit the lack of expectation to cause a surprise. If they can keep the host penned back the pressure from the crowd may yet cause the Venezuelans to lower their performance and give Bolivia an edge they can exploit.

Key player: Juan Pena, the experienced centre back, will have to be on top form if he is to prevent the goals slipping in at the back. Bolivia are by no means high scorers so keeping a clean sheet will be paramount if they are to harbour any hope of making any progress in this tournament.

Posted by Walter Townsend on Tuesday, 26th June 2007

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