The last South American Qualifier had Reinaldo Rueda at the head of two teams that did not qualify for the World Cup. At the beginning of the road to Qatar 2022, he directed the Red team, but left for Colombia after the departure of Carlos Queiroz after the goals on the third and fourth dates against Uruguay (0-3) and Ecuador (6-1) .
Peru kept the quota for the intercontinental playoff that will be played in June and the Tricolor finished in the sixth box to one point, so the Valle del Cauca received multiple criticisms for not achieving the objective, but this type of comment has not only occurred in Colombia, since in Chile they have also questioned his cycle at the head of the Red.
“The choice of the Chilean coach was bad. The one who came and said (Arturo Salah, former president of the ANFP): ‘it’s Rueda’, he liquidated us. He looked for players where he didn’t have to look, he didn’t mention those he didn’t have to mention. Rueda wore down the squad. He had Mena and he didn’t want to mention him, why don’t he mention the best full-back we had who plays in Argentina? What do you have against him if you don’t even know him? “Expressed former goalkeeper Nicolás Peric in National team fans from Agriculture FM.
Also in the talk was the former striker and World Cup player with the Red in Brazil 2014, Mauricio Pinilla, who had a couple of interventions on this subject: “He was a very nice guy, but he worked horrible. (…) He shortened the last piece to Marcelo Díaz, who, perhaps at the time, could have been at the start of the Qualifiers. He was in Racing and he was a starter”.
Rueda’s cycle with Chile included fourth place in the Copa América Brasil 2019, but criticism increased after the start of the Qualifiers, in which got 4 points in the same number of games playedfalling on their visits to Uruguay and Venezuela, drawing 2-2 against Colombia in Santiago and only beating Peru at home.
Then he was in Colombia and it was not enough to take the Tricolor to its third consecutive World Cup after reaching the quarterfinals in Brazil 2014 and the eighth in Russia 2018 under the orders of José Pékerman. Although there has been no official pronouncement by the FCF, Rueda’s stage at the head of the National Team came to an end by not going to Qatar 2022.
