The new coach of Bolivia, Oscar Villegas, He said on Friday that he had already begun planning for the match against Venezuela in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, although without “selling false illusions” of a possible qualification for the World Cup.
“Do you want me to tell you that we are going to the World Cup? I don’t think you are asking me to lie or try to sell false hopes,” Villegas told the media when asked if he thought these qualifiers were lost, in which Bolivia is second to last with only three points in the six games played so far. “What I want to tell you is that we are already preparing for the match against Venezuela this afternoon and we want to win it,” he said.
Villegas was presented today as the new coach of the senior team and of all Bolivian national teams from the under-6 category onwards, within a ten-year plan with which the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) wants to “revolutionize” the management of national teams to overcome the crisis that has been dragging on for decades.
The Bolivian coach replaces Brazilian Antonio Carlos Zago, who was in charge of La Verde since 2023 and whose departure was announced yesterday by the FBF, following the squad’s poor performance in the recent Copa América. Bolivia failed to get past the group stage of the continental tournament, as happened in the three previous editions, and has gone a decade without a win in that competition.
Against Venezuela, in September in La Paz
In the qualifiers, the team has only managed one victory so far, 2-0 against Peru in the fifth round, under the Brazilian’s leadership. In the seventh round, the team led by Villegas will host Venezuela in La Paz in September, which had an outstanding participation in the Copa América, with a perfect run in the group stage, although it was eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing in the penalty shootout against Canada.
Villegas said that he started working towards that match “immediately” when he learned of his appointment and that his team is already “analyzing all of Venezuela’s strong points.” “We are going to focus on Venezuela, on winning that match. Obviously there are three matches coming up and we are not neglecting them,” he said.
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Regarding the possibility of the match being held in El Alto, the neighbouring city of La Paz located at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres, Villegas said that if this arrangement is achieved, it will be “totally welcomed”. The only time that Bolivia reached a World Cup on its own merit was in the qualifiers for the one held in the United States in 1994, under the management of the Spaniard Xabier Azkargorta.
