Rafael Dudamel and his key to recover the competitiveness of Venezuelan football

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A sub-championship of the world in the U20 category, a defined style of play, and sustained development of youth support: the project of the former goalkeeper at the head of 'La Vinotinto'

The next month of April will be three years of arrival, we would say by emergency, the former goalkeeper Rafael Dudamel in command of the Selection of older people of Venezuela, as well as the youth sub20. At the time, the appointment was not viewed with very good eyes by the fans, mainly because of the short course of the mentioned on the bench, however, almost 36 months after the bet has worked and is on the right track.

Leer en español: Rafael Dudamel y su clave para recuperar la competitividad del fútbol venezolano

In one of his first statements just completed the qualifiers for Russia 2018, in which when he took the command and Venezuela had no chance of qualifying, but it improved their performance and their results, "Dudamel pointed to the broad universe of players with the that he expects to work during the FIFA dates either in friendlies or matches. The technician considers that the wider the group, the more they can have alternatives and variants, different from marrying the same group of players. "For many, it is a long time towards Qatar 2022, but for us, we can only work from time to time with the players, it is not", clearly referring to taking advantage of the time.

Hard work: results of applause

The work for Dudamel is titanic, not only for having taken the senior team with heats with destiny resolved, but for his youth, and the country situation, which has unleashed many rumors in the media about a possible departure of the technician to a bench with greater stability, not only economic but social. Not to mention, that the Conmebol qualifiers for the quality of the rivals and for the duration in time are by far the most complicated of those assigned to FIFA.

But Rafael has drawn many of those obstacles to date, mainly because of his character and protected in his figure as a former player and partner for the most veteran players and father iron but motivating for the little ones. The teams of Dudamel are careful in the collective and the good defensive functioning and from there, they generate opportunities in attack. They are ordered teams, disciplined in the brand, physically powerful and counterstrikes.

Their combinations are not usually as technical, but Dudamel seems to be from the idea that the results are the most important. Nor are teams 'mooring' and very defensive, actually present balance. We must also say that the former goalkeeper has managed to take advantage of a lot of very young and talented players like Yangel Herrera, Wuilker Fariñez, Yefferson Soteldo, Sergio Cordova, Samuel Sosa, Ronaldo Chacón, Adalberto Peñaranda, Nahuel Ferraresi, Christian Makoun or Jan Hurtado, those who will compose their work base for the qualifiers that started in March 2020.

The keys to success

The secret of a team's success is having a game identity applied by the appropriate players, and Dudamel has achieved it. The FIFA sub championship in the under20 category in 2017 in South Korea, the excellent image left before Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in the final part of the qualifying rounds (did not lose with any), the good Copa América Centenario 2016 (eliminated Cavani's Uruguay) and the recently completed South American sub20 of Chile speak very well, already in results, of the work of Dudamel, who by the way grows as a technician.

Today, there seems to be no one better than him, to direct the destinies of the Venezuelan national team in the categories above. A more prestigious technician, usually a foreigner, would need time to get to know these 'boys' mentioned above, not to mention what it means to adapt to the conditions of a country in crisis, and what it would mean for the Venezuelan Football Federation an expense outside its proportions a strategist of more prestige and renown. For the moment, the bet is going very well because at a distance the impression one has is that Venezuela has recovered that competitive level that it had in the eras of Richard Páez and César Farías.

The message of Dudamel also goes to the mind of the player, to work in that he always feels essential for the processes, although he does not play everything he wants since in more than one occasion he has said that his teams do not have substitutes and that they all have its importance and function according to characteristics of the rival, conditions, context, and situations of the match.

The strategist requested the federation no less than five parties per year, including on dates other than FIFA. It has also promoted the internationalization of young talent, and that is reflected in four of the current sub-20: Jan Hurtado, Samuel Sosa, Jesus Vargas, and Carlo Olses play in Argentina, and that others a little older, but equally young as Yangel Herrera (Huesca of Spain), Yefferson Soteldo (Santos of Brazil) and Wuilker Fariñez (Colombian League), are developing in leagues of higher level than the Venezuelan. For all the aforementioned, Rafael Dudamel is the cornerstone of Venezuela's return to competitive football.

LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano