July 2, 2023, 8:00 AM
July 2, 2023, 8:00 AM
The 2026 World Cup Qualifiers will begin in September, with dates yet to be defined. In that month, the Bolivian soccer team will play its first two games and they will be nothing more and nothing less than against Brazil as a visitor and Argentina at home.
The coach Gustavo Costas has had five preparation games for these Qualifiers with a balance of one win, one draw and three losses. Something that is also striking is that He has made the goalkeepers Guillermo Viscarra and Carlos Lampe alternate.
In the first friendly of the Costas era, Viscarra started against Peru in Lima on November 19, 2022, the opportunity in which the Inca defeated the Green 1-0.
The remaining four warm-up matches took place this year. On March 24 Bolivia fell to Uzbekistan 1-0, in Saudi Arabia, like Lampe guarding the three sticks.
The 28th of March, La Verde played again in Saudi Arabia with the national team of that country and it was with a 1-2 victory, with Viscarra in goal.
Then came the two friendly matches in June against Ecuador and Chile. By then it was expected that one of the goalkeepers either owns the goal, but Costas kept making them alternate.
On Saturday June 17, in the match against Ecuador in New Jersey, United States, Lampe was there from the opening whistle in the 1-0 defeat.
Three days later, at the Tahuichi Aguilera in Santa Cruz, Bolivia received Chile and the match ended goalless, with Viscarra in goal.
In summary, Viscarra played three games and Lampe played two, both goalkeepers conceded two goals, always taking into account since Gustavo Costas took over.
However, The doubt continues to float regarding who will start in the playoffs. If Costas maintains the rotations, logically it can be said that Lampe will save against Brazil and Viscarra against Argentina.
But the figure can also be given that the national selector you have already decided on one of them in these five friendlies and bet on that goalkeeper in the 2026 World Cup qualifying phase.
Just for reference, let’s remember that in the last qualifying rounds Carlos Lampe was the undisputed starteralthough he did not stop the last two games against Colombia in Barranquilla and against Brazil in La Paz, because the Green no longer had a chance to qualify for Qatar 2022.
In those last two matches of the last Qualifiers, César Farías made a stop to Rubén Cordano, while Viscarra was a substitute.
In addition, the two goalkeepers from Santa Cruz have had outstanding performances in their teams in the domestic tournament and in the Copa Libertadores.
The Strongest, to which Viscarra belongs, was part of group D of the Libertadores and was eliminated after their last group game against River Plate in Argentina on Tuesday. Viscarra conceded seven goals in six games being one of the fences least beaten in the series, after Fluminense who scored six goals.
Bolívar, the team that Lampe plays for, was part of group C of the Libertadores and managed to advance to the next phase ahead of time as second in their series. Lampe conceded seven goals and it was the second least beaten fence of his series and one of the least successful taking into account all the groups.
Between now and the start of the Qualifiers in September, many things can happen, but what is a fact is that the firm candidates to stay with the title in the Bolivian arc they are having a good time.
Guillermo Viscarra was born in Santa Cruz and is 30 years old (7-02-1993). He played for Vitória do Brasil (2012-2014), Bolívar (2014-2015), Oriente Petrolero (2015-2017), Hapoel Ra’anana AFC of Israel (2017), Oriente Petrolero (2018), Bolívar (2019-2020) and The Strongest (2021-2023).
For his part, Carlos Lampe was born in Santa Cruz and is 36 years old. (03-17-1987). He played in Universitario de Sucre (2005-2006), Bolívar (2007), Guabirá (2008), Universitario de Sucre (2009-2011), San José (2011-2012), Bolívar (2012), San José (2013-2015) , Sport Boys Warnes (2015-2016), Huachipato from Chile (2016-2018), Boca Juniors from Argentina (2018), San José (2019), Always Ready (2020-2021), Vélez Sarsfield from Argentina (2021-2022) , Atlético Tucumán of Argentina (2022) and Bolívar (2023).
