Carlos Queiroz, Colombia coach, during the qualifying match that his team lost 6-1 against Ecuador.RODRIGO BUENDIA / AFP
Carlos Queiroz's Colombia is shipwrecked in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The first South American adventure of the Portuguese coach, a football globetrotter, is on the way to becoming a melancholic fado.
The national team received nine goals in two outings, humiliating goals against both Uruguay at home (0-3) and against Ecuador as a visitor (6-1), encounters in which they failed to react even in the humid heat of the Caribbean Barranquilla , nor in the 2,800 meters of altitude of Quito.
Colombia had not lost two games in a row in playoffs since 2009, and had not suffered such a humiliating defeat since 1977, when they fell 6-0 to Brazil at Maracana.
The position of the Portuguese strategist is threatened.
After four rounds, an unrecognizable Colombia languishes with four points in seventh place in a zone where the top four qualify directly to Qatar and the fifth has the option of seeking his ticket in a playoff.
But the most worrying signs are not coming from the board, but from the grass.
In the matches against Ecuador and Uruguay, the team entered disconnected and conceded goals almost from the dressing room that later proved irremovable.
No one showed the leadership necessary to straighten the path on a double date in which, in the absence of Falcao García due to injury, who in any case has already been displaced by the emergence of Duván Zapata in the starting lineup, David Ospina and James Rodríguez respectively wore the captain's armband.
After suffering its worst knockout loss in Barranquilla, where the team is betting on melting its rivals, but instead suffered the suffocating intensity of the Uruguayans, Queiroz shook the lineup to face Ecuador.
The effect could not have been worse, and the strategist made four almost simultaneous changes in the first half, when he was already four goals down on the scoreboard, in a desperate attempt to correct his approach.
James, called to be the leader of the team, closed the gap with the collection of a penalty near the post that did not even serve to make up the final result.
The Everton player has scored 23 goals for his national team - nine of them in qualifying rounds and six in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he was crowned top scorer - but this was just his first goal in Queiroz's cycle.
In the absence of individual and collective responses, the coach is on the ropes.
“The worst Selection in 43 years: Queiroz, enough is enough!”,
El Tiempo
, one of the leading national newspapers
, headlined
.
"Queiroz seems not to know who he directs, he feels that he does not have the gift of command to turn the matter around," says Nicolás Samper, sports analyst for radio station RCN.
It is clear that the coach has to change many things and the group is not showing him the respect that he should deserve, he points out.
After the World Cup in Russia, which closed the successful cycle of the esteemed José Pékerman, the Colombian federation took a long time to define his successor.
In the end, he was entrusted to the experienced Queiroz, who came from directing Iran for eight years after having passed through the benches of Portugal, Manchester United and Real Madrid.
He did it just four months before the Copa América.
"Queiroz was plan C, which ends up being plan A compared to other options that did not work," recalls Samper.
The Portuguese coach's project has been promising at times, especially during last year's continental tournament.
Deployed from a stiff 4-3-3, the team left good feelings, particularly in its official debut, a 2-0 victory over Argentina.
Colombia also defeated Paraguay (1-0) and Qatar (1-0) in the group stage, and said goodbye to the tournament in the quarterfinals with the fence undefeated, losing on penalties to Chile after drawing scoreless.
The loss to Uruguay, in fact, was the coach's first in an official match with Colombia, although the team had already shown worrying signs of regression, particularly during a friendly against Algeria, which lost 3-0.
“We started well, but in the last two dates the results are tough.
I think and I am certain that the Colombian players do not deserve this situation, but once again it must be said that I am responsible, ”Queiroz said at the press conference after the win in Quito.
He asked the fans for "tolerance", but did not refer to its continuity.
"I am sure that we will change for the next game," he said.
The qualifiers go on hiatus until March of next year, when Colombia hosts Brazil in Barranquilla and visits Paraguay in Asunción.
Four years ago, Pékerman also started the tie with four points in the same number of games and ended up qualifying Russia, but he had the enormous credit of having led Colombia to the quarterfinals at the World Cup in Brazil, his best performance in history .
The general feeling is that, having played just four dates of this edition, Queiroz's selection has one foot outside of Qatar.
