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La Roja<br>(''The Red'')
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Federación De Fútbol<br>de Chile
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Nelson Acosta , 2005-
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Leonel Sanchez (84)
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Marcelo Salas (35)
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Argentina 3 - 1 Chile<br/>( Buenos Aires , Argentina 27 May , 1910 )
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Chile 7 - 0 Venezuela <br/>( Santiago , Chile 29 August , 1979 )<br/>Chile 7 - 0 Armenia <br/>( Santiago , Chile 5 January , 1997 )
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Brazil 7 - 0 Chile <br/>( Rio De Janeiro , Brazil 17 September , 1959 )
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7
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1930
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Third place, 1962
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Copa América
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34
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1916
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The represents
Chile in all major international
Football competition. The team is controlled by the
Federación De Fútbol De Chile and is a founding member of
CONMEBOL . They have appeared in seven
World Cup tournaments.
Chile participated in the first World Cup in
1930 . They started off well beating
Mexico and
France without giving up a
Goal . A 3-1 loss to Argentina in their final game left them in second place in their group, eliminating them from the tournament.
Their best World Cup result was a third place finish in
1962 , when Chile was the host nation. Chile lost to eventual champion
Brazil 4-2 in a semifinals match, but beat
Yugoslavia 1-0 in the third place match.
Chile qualified for
Deutschland 74 after a controversial play-off with the
USSR . Following a drawn first leg in Moscow, the Soviets refused to play the second leg at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, which had been used as a concentration camp by the
Pinochet regime. However,
FIFA refused to switch the match to a neutral venue, and the Soviets refused to fly to Santiago. The Chilean players kicked off on an otherwise empty pitch, scored into the unguarded USSR net, and because there was no opposition to restart the game, the referee awarded the match to Chile, ensuring they qualified for the 1974 finals.
At the tournament itself, Chile lost their opening game 1-0 to
West Germany in Berlin, thanks to a long-range shot from
Paul Breitner . Striker
Carlos Caszely was controversially sent off in the second half.
Chile then fought out a 1-1 draw with
East Germany , again in Berlin. Martin Hoffmann put the GDR ahead, but Sergio Ahumada equalised with 20 minutes left. Finally, they got another draw, this time a goalless one, against
Australia , which eliminated both teams.
At
España 82 , the Chileans performed poorly with an ageing team in which Caszely and the 35-year-old central defender
Elias Figueroa were still the main men. They lost their first game 1-0 to
Austria in Oviedo,
Walter Schachner scoring the only goal midway through the first half. Caszely missed a penalty soon afterwards.
Chile were then thrashed 4-1 in Gijón by a
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge -inspired
West Germany , with goalkeeper Mario Osbén making a couple of costly errors; Gustavo Moscoso grabbed a late consolation goal. Finally, against
Algeria , Chile were overrun in the first half and went in at half-time 3-0 behind, but managed to save some face with second-half goals from Miguel Neira and Juan Carlos Letelier.
''La Roja's'' most infamous moment came on
September 3 ,
1989 . During a qualifying match at Rio De Janeiro's
Maracanã stadium, Brazil led Chile 1-0. A defeat for Chile would eliminate them from the tournament. Around the 67-minute mark, Chilean goalkeeper
Roberto "Cóndor" Rojas fell to the pitch with an apparent injury to his forehead. A
Firework , thrown from the stands by a Brazilian fan named Rosemary de Mello, was smouldering about a yard away. After carrying Rojas off the pitch, the Chilean players and coaches refused to return claiming conditions were not safe. The match went unfinished.
After studying video footage of the match showing that the firework had not made contact with Rojas,
FIFA awarded Brazil a 2-0 win (eliminating Chile from the 1990 World Cup). Chile were banned from the qualifiers of the
1994 Football World Cup , and Rojas was banned for life (although an amnesty was granted in
2001 ).
Chile qualified for the World Cup in France in 1998 having been banned from entering the 1994 tournament. They were drawn in Group B, along with
Italy ,
Cameroon and
Austria . With much expected of their strike partnership of
Marcelo Salas and
Iván Zamorano , Chile drew impressively with Italy in Bordeaux in their opening match, 2-2, with Salas scoring both goals in reply to
Christian Vieri 's opener. The game was most noted for
Roberto Baggio 's late equalizer for Italy with a controversial penalty, banishing memories of his fatal miss in the 1994 final against Brazil in Los Angeles.
Chile drew their next two matches 1-1. The first was a dreadful game with Austria in St-Étienne. Salas opened the scoring with a disputed goal scored from close range (the Austrians protested his shot never crossed the line), but Austria, as they had in their first match against Cameroon, equalised in the last minute,
Ivica Vastic scoring a spectacular long-range effort.
Against Cameroon in Nantes five days later,
José Luis Sierra 's excellent free-kick gave Chile the lead, but the Africans fought back strongly and equalised with a header from
Patrick Mboma . Despite having
Rigobert Song and
Lauren Etame Mayer sent off, Cameroon dominated the second half, and were only denied a victory when Hungarian referee László Vagner inexplicably disallowed a good goal by
François Omam-Biyik .
Italy had been the only team to win in the group, so Chile's unbeaten record took them into the last 16, and a tie with South American rivals
Brazil at the
Parc Des Princes in Paris. The Brazilians took Chile to pieces in the first half, despite Zamorano's superb performance (the footage of him passionately singing the national anthem prior to kick-off was one of the most enduring images of the tournament).
César Sampaio scored twice early on, and a
Ronaldo penalty made it 3-0 before half-time. Chile courageously kept fighting, and Salas got his fourth goal of the competition, heading in a rebound after
Claudio Taffarel had saved from Zamorano, but Ronaldo scored again quickly and Chile were out of the tournament.
- 1930 - Round 1
- 1934 - ''Withdrew''
- 1938 - ''Did not enter''
- 1950 - Round 1
- 1954 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1958 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1962 - Third place
- 1966 - Round 1
- 1970 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1974 - Round 1
- 1978 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1982 - Round 1
- 1986 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1990 - ''Disqualified''
- 1994 - ''Banned''
- 1998 - Round 2
- 2002 - ''Did not qualify''
- 2006 - ''Did not qualify''
