In a press conference today in Santa Clara, California, Jorge Sampaoli, Chile’s Head Coach, touched on various topics including tomorrow’s friendly between Mexico and Chile, Arturo Vidal’s knee, the road to next year’s Copa America, Claudio Borghi, and players Paredes and Canales.
Tomorrow’s game marks Chile’s first “amistoso” since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Sampaoli indicated that he was negotiating additional friendlies for March and he expected to have news with respect to the same within the next 24 hours. But first, Chile will take the field against Mexico, with both teams vying to start off the road to the Copa America on the right foot. While Sampaoli said he could not yet promise the Copa America, he was confident that tomorrow’s match would be a tactically attractive game where ultimately the “performance of the players will decide who will end up with the victory.”
With respect to Vidal and the rumors about his knee injury, Sampaoli emphasized that his knee is “perfect,” stating that “If Vidal was not in a condition to play, Juventus would not have given him to us.” Sampaoli did confirm that the mid-fielder would not be joining the national team in Haiti, as he would be returning directly to Italy.
Though prodded to comment about some of Claudio Borghi’s recent statements, Sampaoli simply indicated that “they are different opinions . . . and one cannot contradict opinion.”
To close out the conference, he shared final words about Esteban Paredes y Gustavo Canales. The Argentine emphasized with respect to Paredes that the priority is always the health of the players. He commented that they are analyzing the situation with Canales and players “should wait for the call and be prepared . . . we are analyzing a ton of players.”
Photo and Article by Néstor Colombo
