Football in Venezuela is not the religion it is to most South American countries. In general the support for it is not as great, nor is it played as widely. They are, as a result, perennial under dogs with little history to shout about.

Venezuela’s best Copa América finish came in 2011, a commendable fourth place, but to this day remain the only of the ten CONMEBOL nations to have never qualified for the World Cup Finals.

The 2011 team that did so well in the Copa was based upon defensive solidity and tenacity, as well as a load of character that saw them unbeaten until their third-place match vs Peru. Sadly, good performances that year did not translate well enough to the 2014 World Cup qualification, where they continued their voodoo and failed to progress from the South American qualifiers.

The Right Man

After the disappointment of World Cup exit, Venezuela parted ways with their most successful ever coach, César Farías and began a new era under Noel Sanvicente. As far as Venezuelan football goes, Sanvicente is as good as it gets, having won the Venezuelan Primera División a total of seven times with domestic clubs Caracas FC and most recently Zamora FC in 2014.

Over seven friendly games in charge of La Vinotinto, Sanvicente has triumphed three times with wins over Peru and Honduras (who they defeated twice in a week), while losing to South Korea, Chile, Jamaica and Bolivia.

In those friendlies, Venezuela have shown signs of inconsistency, but also an ability to grind out results in close games, which might make or break them.

Venezuela’s only other scheduled friendly prior to the beginning of the Copa was against Bolivia, which ended up being cancelled by FIFA. That’ll be frustrating for Sanvicente, who’s had no opportunity to finalise his best team. Judging by recent games, it’ll probably look somehting like this.

Sanvicenete has been using a 4–4–2/ 4–5–1 formation, switching between using one striker or two. In both cases, the team is offensively based around 6'2" Zenit Saint Petersburg striker Salomón Rondón. Usually he’ll be supported by the quicker and more technical Josef Martínez in the traditional but rare number 9, number 10 partnership. In the 4–5–1, Rondón keeps his place, while Martínez is replaced by an attacking midfielder, such as the veteran Juan Arango or Ronald Vargas. At times Venezuela have lacked creativity, and very notably a link between midfield and attack. Unlike most South American teams, Venezuela’s full backs don’t push up especially high, and midfielders Rincón and Lucena, while technically and tactically sound, rarely run ahead of their forwards.