“Do you want me to tell you we’re going to the World Cup?”

The new coach Bolivia, Oscar Villegas, He said on Friday that he had started planning the match against Venezuela for the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, although not “selling false illusions” of a possible qualification for the World Cup event.

“Do you want me to tell you that we are going to the World Cup? I don’t think you are asking me to lie or try to sell false illusions,” Villegas told the media when asked if he considered these qualifiers lost, in which Bolivia It is second to last with only 3 points from six dates played so far. “What I want to tell you is that we are preparing for the match against Venezuela starting this afternoon and we want to win it,” he expressed.

Villegas was presented today as the new coach of the senior team and of all Bolivian teams from the sub’6 category, during a ten-year plan in which the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) wants to “revolutionize” management of the national team to overcome the crisis that has been going on for decades.

The Bolivian strategist replaces Brazilian Antonio Carlos Zago, who has been in charge of La Verde since 2023 and whose departure was announced by the FBF the previous day, after the team’s poor performance in the recent Copa América. Bolivia did not make it past the group stage of the continental tournament, as it had in the three previous editions, and had not won that competition in a decade.

Against Venezuela, in September in La Paz

In the qualifiers, the team has achieved only one victory so far, 2-0 against Peru on the fifth day, under the leadership of the Brazilian. On the seventh day, the team led by Villegas will receive Venezuela in La Paz in September, which had an outstanding participation in the Copa América, with a perfect passage to the group stage, although it went to the quarterfinals after losing in the round of sanctions against Canada.

Villegas assured that he started working towards that meeting “immediately” learning about his appointment and that his team is “examining all the strengths of Venezuela.” “We are going to focus on Venezuela, on winning that game. Obviously there are three games coming up and we are not neglecting them,” he stated.

Regarding the possibility that the meeting could be held in El Alto, the neighboring city of La Paz located at more than 4,000 meters of altitude, Villegas pointed out that if this management is achieved, it will be “absolutely welcome. ” The only time Bolivia reached the World Cup on its own merit was in the qualifiers for the one held in the United States in 1994, under the leadership of Spaniard Xabier Azkargorta.