Rod Vargas, Chilean trainer in Melbourne, talks about the phenomenon of the Australian dancing goalkeeper: “He appears on all the channels, in all the shows, in all the news”

Rodrigo Vargas is one of those foreign-born Chilean players, who were once on the national team’s radar even before Ben Breretton That is Nayel Mehssatou . A 1.81m central defender, who played in the first category of Australia, the country for which he finally made his international debut. Now, in his role as junior coach and local league commentator, he answers El Deportivo’s call to analyze that same team. Because the oceanic country returned to the football map after eliminating Peru from Qatar 2022. All with the penalty covered by the charismatic goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne. “He’s a national figure,” says the former defender, who lives in Melbourne, in perfect Spanish. He also credits the Socceroos’ feat with bringing football back to center stage in a country where other sports are popular.

You seem to have a busy schedule…

(Laughs) I work in the prison for children between 10 and 20 years old. After. In the afternoon, I work with the Nunawading City Under 21, the team where I retired. Also, with two daughters and a son, I have very little time (laughs)… I am also a national league commentator on the radio. I was born here, my parents are from San Antonio and came to Australia after the coup. Of course, our first language was Spanish. And Chilean customs are not lost, here in Melbourne we are more than 15,000 people.

Have you ever come close to playing for the Reds?

Yes, at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Someone called me to see if I had a passport. But at that time, I had no options. There was noise, but nothing happened. And then I had the chance to play for Australia in the 2010 South African qualifiers.

How was qualifying for the World Cup in Australia?

In fact, these qualifications have not had as much publicity as others. Maybe because of the Covid issue, with all the restrictions they didn’t give it much light. Now, at the end, the last two games, the press got hotter and louder. But with the ranking, the whole country is surely behind the feat, because there are already five in a row. A great merit for a country like this, especially since it is played in the Asian qualifiers.

Although football is not a very popular sport there, is it?

Here, the national sport is football, which is played with the hands, with the exception of rugby. Football has always been third in popularity. However, a lot is being played out in schools and this World Cup is giving it more publicity.

What did you think of the performance? Andrew Redmayne the goalkeeper who saved the penalty from Peruvian Alex Valera in the definition?

(Laughs) … The funny thing is that Redmayne is very well known for doing that. He did it for years with his team in Sydney. It’s something that was born out of him and is now a global phenomenon.

And now he’s a national hero?

Before being known as a local goalkeeper, after the match against Peru, he became a national figure in Australia. He was involved in the national team, but never, like now. He is on all the channels, in all the shows, in all the news… He made so much noise, which is good for him and for the national team. In Australia you turn on the TV and there’s the face of Redmayne.

Now The rules will prevent this type of movement on penalties…

In recent years, so many rules have made football lose its malice, the human side of the activity. The mental, psychological thing. Ditto in the Var where the game is already in the hands of computers and the most frustrating thing is the time it takes. I comment the match live and you wait six minutes, you see the obvious error and the payout is not changed. I don’t like it too much, the player is the one who makes the game more attractive for the fan.

how about that the ocean guardian hid the bottle from the Peruvian performers?

(Laughs)… Sounds good to me, I agree. Football has those things, a playfulness that you don’t see much of in Australia. The most famous goal, the hand of Maradona, is the most famous. It’s a very smart thing that Redmayne did.

Her dance is from a children’s program, isn’t it?

He borrowed it from the children’s group The Wiggles, well known here and in the United States. It is a group of four musicians. Redmayne copied that dance and now the band will create a character in grey, like the color the goalie wore.

How do you think Australia will fare at the World Cup in a group with France, Denmark and Tunisia?

Here people like to criticize, they say that the team will only go to make numbers. That we will not pass the first round. It’s like the Olympics, only one will win gold and thousands will compete. The great pride is to reach the World Cup. We can take points, we had already lost against France in Russia, but we can take points against the other rivals. There are five months left and they can get players back.

What do you think of Coach Graham Arnold?

He is a former professional player. He has performed here and abroad. It was international. He loves football, he has done a lot for the national team. People have been very critical, but they don’t realize that the team has played 16 out of 20 away games.

You were a central defender, how do you see the Océanic team in this position?

I see it very well. There is a boy who has played three games, Kye Rowles, who has now signed for Scotland. He has a huge future. There’s also Trent Sainsbury, who has already played in two World Cups and couldn’t be in the last game.

And women’s football is more successful?

It’s much more competitive. The Matildas are very high in the FIFA rankings, they do well in the Olympics. There are a lot of girls playing, it’s very popular.

Has the Covid affected the activity?

A lot. The boys went two years without playing and now it’s back to normal. Two or three games are played per week and it has been expensive to resume. But the country has been one of the best reactants in the world. We were super strict with working hours, with schools, going out on the streets, masks, vaccinations… Now people have tried to return to normality and I hope we will continue like this.

Is Australia a racist country, in general terms?

This was the case 20 or 30 years ago. Now it’s a cosmopolitan country, there are a lot of foreigners. There are a lot of Asians, Italians, around 500,000 Greeks… It’s a multicultural country.

Have you ever felt discriminated against on a court?

Not much, when I was little I went to school and my parents spoke to me in Spanish. People looked at us strangely and the older ones said that we had to speak English, because we are in Australia. But never in football. Even now we even have African players in the national team.