Tabarez: 2014 qualifiers tougher than Copa
Reuters - Monday 25 July 2011, 00:29
BUENOS AIRES - Winning the Copa America
is wonderful but gives no guarantees of success in the World Cup
qualifiers, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said after his team's
record triumph on Sunday.
Uruguay confirmed their status as South America's best team
with their 3-0 victory over Paraguay in the Copa America final
after reaching the last four in the 2010 World Cup.
"This is very gratifying, very nice, but a qualifying series
is something else because it's not played at one venue, where
presumably the only ones with an advantage are the home team,"
Tabarez said.
"To have won the Copa America has no bearing on the
qualifiers, it's no guarantee," he told a news conference at
River Plate's Monumental stadium where a crowd of 55,000 watched
his team win the final.
The South American qualifiers, a nine-nation, 18-round
series spanning two years, are just around the corner, kicking
off in October.
Uruguay, twice world champions in the first half of the last
century, have struggled over the years to qualify for the finals
but Tabarez, in charge for five years, has built a team that has
put Uruguay back among the leading football nations.
"We have to have faith in our things, we prepared for the [Copa America], we did it well," said Tabarez.
"We went improving our form during the competition. The
studies we did showed us that against Argentina we were in very
good form," he said of the victory on penalties against the
hosts in the quarter-finals following a 1-1 draw after extra-time.
"Today, perhaps we weren't quite as good as in that match
but we were good enough to play a final the way we did," the
64-year-old said.
"What the scientific studies say is a reflection of our
preparations and we'll follow the same course [for the
qualifiers].
"In the qualifiers there are distances [to travel], climate
factors, all those things that come into play and on top of that
in each country there is a national feeling fans convert into a
desire to reach the World Cup and that makes it, for me, much
more competitive than a Copa America."
Tabarez said winning the trophy for a record 15th time was a
boost to the team's confidence but they would keep their feet on
the ground and not believe it would improve their World Cup
chances.
"There's no comparison with coming to play in Argentina or
matches at the Centenario [in Montevideo]... we're not going to
say [to rivals] look, we won the Copa America."