What comes to our mind when we visualize an international football coach? Handsomely clad in a suit signifying strong personality, well mannered and tactically sound. There are a lot of them who are blessed with those attributes but when you see Jorge Sampaoli, the Argentine coach of Chile national team, your thoughts will take a sharp U-turn. Sampaoli is different. He is aggressive and never remains static in one place.
When many other coaches opt for formal outfit, Sampaoli opts for a close-fitting trouser and a polo shirt with the name Chile printed at the back and it was no different before Chile’s second round clash against Brazil on last Saturday. A pair of sneakers perfectly suits him to keep his continuous movement on and off the field. On Saturday he entered the field ahead of his team and waived to the La Roja supporters and asked them to cheer the team up.
The trademark of Sampaoli is he never sits in the dugout and constantly shouts his instructions across to his players while occasionally throwing his arms in the air. While standing beside the sideline, he was seen having a jibe at Brazilian players as they moved forward with Oscar and Neymar being the targets. But his lips remained immobile when Chilean players were in possession of the ball. He almost hit Alexis Sanchez once on the face while reacting to a referee’s call as Sanchez was coming near the sideline to collect a drink.
During the early minutes, he ran to the fourth referee protesting loudly against a decision but continued to argue with the assistant referee even after being signaled to return to his den. Movement of his hands never stopped, always vocal and full of endless energy.
Sampaoli became headline by criticizing the pitch conditions of Arena de Sao Paulo before Chile’s match against Netherlands in the group stage. “The pitch in the stadium is in a bad state. We don’t want to destroy it more. Tomorrow we will have a match in the stadium on a pitch that does not meet our expectations,” complained Sampaoli.
Sampaoli had to temporarily suspend a practice session when Globo’s, a Brazilian news channel, helicopter flew over the team’s base on Thursday, two days before the Brazil match. Hector Olave, the team’s communication director said he asked Globo not to broadcast any of the images. Sampaoli was worried ‘because he was working on tactics and didn’t want them to know how he plans to approach the match.’ Olave later revealed that the private broadcaster apologized for this spying.
However, Sampoli’s heart always beats for the Chilean national team. “This is the best generation of Chilean footballers in our history. Our team is stronger than any other team we have seen before in our country. That miss right at the end has been really hard to accept. We so nearly won,
it was harsh,” said Sampaoli, still recovering from the shock of exit in the post match presser.
“If we had scored, we would have made history for ever. It would have been the Mineirazo,” he said referring to Brazil’s shock defeat to Uruguay, which is known as the ‘Maracanazo’, at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro in 1950 World Cup.
“I’m very proud of my players. I’m proud for Chile. Everyone was against us in the stadium but we have given everything. We fought hard,” concluded the 54 year old Argentine.
