Luis Fernando Suárez already leaves behind the playoffs, the first contact with Qatar and the noisy celebration of the people of Costa Rica for qualifying for the World Cup. He is going for his third World Cup, having managed Ecuador in 2006 and Honduras in 2014. And he believes that things should and have to be different from his previous two experiences.
“When I got here they told me that Tuesday was crazy, extreme joy, people were very happy. Sometimes you value things much more when they happen in such a complicated way, ”Suárez told EL TIEMPO.
In the first seven dates, Costa Rica only had six points. How do they straighten the road?
There are situations where drastic decisions must be made. One decision was for the coaching staff to leave; another, that there was support, as indeed happened on the part of the Federation. They made a lot of sacrifices. The tournament was stopped several times, we began to do work as if we were a club, with work microcycles that were very good, and then we made the decision to make an express transition, calling up some players who did not have much experience and who we believed that they could answer. Fortunately they did.
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You brought a base from the past World Cups and you gradually included pieces. How did you manage to put them together?
Making transitions is one thing, changing everything at a stroke is totally counterproductive. The important thing is that the greatest, Keylor Navas, Celso Borges, Bryan Ruiz, Joel Campbell himself, who already has a lot of games on him, took part in this. When we called these guys there was a good synergy. There was a 17-year-old boy, a 20-year-old, a very low average. They got into the story and something interesting happened: the adults just wanted to teach and the little ones wanted to learn.
The experiences in Qatar and what was learned in previous World Cups
What did you learn from playing in Qatar, thinking about what is coming in the World Cup?
I had many questions about how it could be done, the organization was very good. The temperature on the day was 42, 43 degrees, but we had no problem with that. The fields where we train, the stadium where we play, everything is very well organized. They have enough money to do it. Today Doha is in a reconstruction process, doing a lot of things to make the World Cup the best way possible.
What can you apply from your experiences in the previous two World Cups?
If I am repeating a story that I lived with Ecuador or that I lived with Honduras, I am doing something wrong. It would be a sign that things are not right. It is a different experience. There is one thing that is common, that I want to be in a World Cup again, but they are three totally different countries and there are three different coaches: Suárez from Ecuador is one, Suárez from Honduras is another and I hope that Suárez from Qatar is a lot better.
How is that Colombian component that you have in your coaching staff?
If there is any virtue that I have as a coach, it is knowing how to choose my teammates. My assistant, John Bodmer, is very restless. I met him when I directed at Equidad, we faced each other in a friendly. His speech seemed very important to me, how he did it. Then we had a conversation and he seems to me to be an important person for the future of Colombia. With Felipe Camacho, the psychologist, we did work seven, eight years ago. It’s a different way to add something to soccer training. He has charisma and the players copy him. And the third is Iván Niño, whom I met now that I was in Bucaramanga. He is 29 years old and he is a sponge, what he wants is to learn.
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“If I am repeating a story that I lived with Ecuador or that I lived with Honduras, I am doing something wrong. It would be a sign that things are not right.”
Have you already analyzed the World Cup group, with Spain, Germany and Japan?
Not yet, I’m honest. The only thing I did when we qualified for the playoffs was watch, watch, watch stuff from New Zealand. It is my obligation to look at each of the things. I am not discovering anything: we will face two teams that have been world champions, who have a lot of capacity, and an agile and disciplined team like Japan, who also have to be careful. You have to look at everything, but what I have to take care of the most is our team. We qualified well, fairly, but I am aware that we have a lot to improve.
Luis Fernando Suárez and his relationship with the Colombian National Team
You were close to reaching the Colombian National Team in 2000, when Javier Álvarez left. Why didn’t he accept at that time?
At the time I thought, and still do, that it was too raw. I was completely sure that it was going to go very badly for me because I did not have the capacity to lead the National Team and that is what I told the people of the Federation.
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Do you aspire at some point to reach the Colombian National Team?
The truth is, there has not been a situation similar to that of that moment, where there was a wish from the people of the Federation and a possibility from me. I have been working a lot on the outside and it has gone well for me. So right now, I don’t think of that as the most important thing. If it happens, it is because it has to happen. Now it is much more difficult than before, I am absorbed in what is Costa Rica, Colombia has its coach for four years and the more time passes, the less possibility of doing it. The most important thing is that, with what I have lived, I have been calm and I have represented Colombia.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Sub-Editor
@josasc
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