Fossati, the friendlies, the anti-spy posters and other responses from his first week as national team coach

But it changed. This is the first week of Fossati As the formal coach of the Peruvian team, just two points in the qualifying process and in the talks he has had with media with broadcasting rights, he has left some clues to understand what his way of working will be like. “This will be, above all, a first moment of observation,” he said. In that sense, it is highly probable that he has already seen the two videos for which Christian Cueva, missing 10 from Blanquirroja, has gone viral: 1) Where you can see his battered knee due to surgery. 2) Where you can see him partying in Trujillo.

The friendly ones. Because?

It was clear, in his first meeting with the FPF Board of Directors: we need to train with teams that resemble the next South American qualifying rivals -Colombia and Uruguay-, more physical and associated game than vertical and direct. And although there were talks via a businessman to take the team to the United States and play a friendly with Italy – everyone’s favorite -, Jorge Fossati preferred substance over form and convinced the FPF to have Guatemala and Panama, both in Lima, in two stadiums that summarize the country’s soccer idiosyncrasy: the first would be in the Monumental and the other in Matute. DT was able to learn from within Videna that there were other reasons: Fossati wants to have the group (a new group) training for as long as possible, adjusting to the new idea of ​​playing 3-5-2 and a possible trip could complicate it. Today, he wants privacy. Knowledge. Form a squad and inspire/recover it.

Dates? Between March 18 and 26. “We had an offer to go to China. I prefer to face teams that are similar to those we will see in the Copa América,” he told RPP yesterday. Fossati’s first stroke of authority: he wants to recover the illusion. The next FIFA date will be from June 3 to 11 and then, between June 14 and July 14, the Copa América will take place.

First call

According to the dates agreed for the first friendly with Guatemala, Fossati’s first official call-up as coach will be the last week of February. I understand that there is an important legion of teams in the MLS and Mexico – Gallese, Cartagena, Ruidíaz, Quispe – and that would be his first trip there in the coming weeks. The coach would also have a pending conversation with Renato Tapia in Spain, for an important sector of criticism, the next captain of Peru in the Copa América.

Your relationship with people

Every day, behind a 5x3m screen on the Balta boardwalk, in Miraflores, Jorge Fossati generated the only possible relationship that is born looking at the Grau Sea: affection, closeness, peace. It was not in vain that he went out for a walk every day, mate in hand, to watch the evening fall. And not in vain, throughout his stay at the U, he understood that the passion of the fans is returned in the simplest gestures. And that it is good to talk.

In fact, Fossati has made three decisions in this regard: 1) Give interviews to all the media, first those that have the transmission rights and then to the others, at least once a month, to those who require it. 2) Add one or two technical assistants to the Venezuela Pre-Olympic, which Chemo del Solar will direct. 3) Recover the relationship with the fan. “Here, if I could, I would train in the Plaza de Armas surrounded by fans. There is no anti-spy plan here,” he said yesterday on ATV. The black signs to prevent information leaks, those that surrounded the Videna fields, will soon be gone.

The Copa América group

It was the first evaluation of Fossati and his coaching staff: the Cup. It will be their official debut. The ‘Blanquirroja’ is in Group A along with Argentina, Chile and Concacaf 5 (Canada or Trinidad and Tobago), so the first match in this series will be against the ‘Roja’ on June 21 at the AT&T Stadium. Later we will clash with the North American representative, on June 25 at Children’s Mercy Park, to close against the current world champion at Hard Rock Stadium, on June 29. Then, the Qualifiers. The abyss or the glory.