Hugo Tocalli: “It’s not because Ricardo Gareca is fired that the Chilean team will change”

Hugo Tocalli He knows the reality of national football very closely. World champion with Argentina Sub 20, the trans-Andean coach worked between 2013 and 2015 with the Red youth team. Before, in 2009, he was champion with Colo Colo. Today he is Independiente’s director of grassroots football.

What do you think of La Roja’s gift?

I imagine how everything must be there. I watched the whole game against Colombia and the problem didn’t look good. Well, now we have to look forward. It’s a shame what’s happening. You don’t know what Ricardo Gareca is, Professor Néstor Bonillo… It makes me sad, painful for everything that is happening. Besides because things are also bad in Chile. He watched the match with immense sadness. But hey, there is no choice but to continue.

What is the diagnosis?

I still follow Chilean football a lot. What I don’t know, because I see a lot of new faces, is how they envisage the replacement that the Chilean team must undergo. How does the analysis of footballers who play in the First Division work? All that remains in Chile is to make a selection of young people and bet on them. I understand your misfortune to be excluded from the World Cup, but you must do something for the future.

And what can La Roja do immediately?

First, calm your head. They are a month old. I would not make a decision today, I would have meetings with ANFP officials and I would carefully analyze what is going to be done. If Gareca leaves, what have we gained. If he doesn’t leave, what do we gain and what do we lose? The solution is not just Gareca, because if another coach arrives he will change one, two or four players and it will always be the same. The Chilean media must understand that this successful generation is over, as it happened to us, even if we have progressed. The problem is that Chile has done nothing to create another successful generation.

Would you say that we should already be thinking about 2030?

Let’s see, there is still hope for 2026. The problem here is what the ANFP leadership will decide regarding Gareca. I’m not in favor of constantly changing. We need a long project with the deadlines that Marcelo Bielsa perhaps had. This is what the ANFP needs. But the players who fell in Barranquilla are the best… If that is the case, they will have to put their heads in the freezer for a while, calm down a little, carefully analyze what will be done with Gareca and what the ANFP will do will concern the future of the Chilean team. If so, well, you’ll have to think about it for quite a while. Not that every ten games you have to remove a coach. This way you will never be able to find a job.

What is Gareca’s share of responsibility for what is happening?

When we are in a group, we all have a responsibility, especially the coach. But we have to see how it works. Without a doubt, the results are not good, but you have to see what their work looks like.

Is the solution to do without the technician?

I don’t think the solution is to remove Gareca. I’m not on a daily basis to give an opinion on whether this is a good decision. For me, what I never liked is that this one and a half, two year project doesn’t exist.

You worked here and got fired too…

But my results were not good, it did not go well in Chile as elsewhere. If there is no four, five or six year project among young people, there is no fruit. The ANFP must do long-term work in all areas, from the youth level to the adult level. Now that they have Nico Córdova working there, I saw that the Sub 15 are doing good in Bolivia, for example. They have to analyze. By firing Gareca they won’t change one hundred percent, maybe a little, but not the whole thing.

In Chile there were no lower jobs between 2019 and 2021. Does this have an impact?

Certainly. If good work is not done in the youth teams, there is no future. I had to work with the ANFP in youth, there are still a few players, like Rodrigo Echeverría or Marcos Bolados. The work of the inferiors is not done now and the footballers will be an immediate reality. The issue is, in two or three years, what we will give to the senior team. But you have to invest. Spending money on young players is investing for the future. If you don’t do that, you won’t succeed and clubs need to understand that. It is not possible that throughout Chile there is no reserve tournament planned for the first teams.

Is this the only way?

Of course, with patience and a long-term plan. I insist, clubs must understand that the money spent on young players is an investment.

In Chile at least, the clubs are SA, and they try to allocate little money to youth teams and receive immediate feedback…

They are businessmen, but if the ANFP decides to organize a reserve championship, the clubs must comply, otherwise they will be disaffiliated. They need to understand that if these kids develop, the same institutions will later have players to sell.

Are there raw materials in Chile?

In Chile, there have always been good players. Here we have two star scorers, Felipe Loyola and Simón Pinto, who are very interesting. There’s always, what happens is you have to work and think about the future.

Do you agree that the Chilean footballer is content with little, professionally?

In the days of Marcelo Bielsa he had greater ambition, he played well and won everywhere. He made them understand that they could present themselves to anyone, with serious work, with a lot of discipline. What I notice is that before, we played more international matches for the boys’ growth, now there are not as many matches or championships. So, the federation will have to invest money so that young players gain this experience, so that they feel the importance they must have to access the senior team. Otherwise it will be a very big problem.

Do they have very short goals?

We felt it when we were there. But we have to make a turn, make a change. I said it in Chile. Here in Argentina we have, thank God, something that we understood when we were in the national team. Regarding youth, we have one of the best championships in the world. Everyone asks me why… I say because we play 30 or 35 very difficult matches a year, where anyone beats anyone. And when you, since you were a child, have this competition, you also have growth. Unfortunately, Chile does not have this competition.