National Team Overview: Venezuela

In our series about the Copa América, we are trying to introduce the teams that take patr in the prestigious competition.

This time, we would like to bring the Venezuelan national football team closer to our readers by talking about their previous achievements, their squad among other interesting topics. Venezuela is not among the most popular, nor the most successful teams of South Aémrica, yet their football team has some particularly interesting stories which are worth knowing before the upcoming event. Keep on reading, if you would like to know more about the football team of this South American nation!

Venezuela has relatively small Copa América past

Venezuela has not participated in the very first editions of the South American championship. In addition, Venezuelan gambling news report that the side’s first participation has happened in 1967, before that, they have never taken part in the continental tournament.

Even though their lack of experience and routine in the competition back in 1967, they ahve managed to reach the fifth position in the end upon defeating Bolivia easily by 3-0. That has been their best result for a very long time as they have been underachieving in the next few editions of the tournament.

• La Vinotinto participated in 1967 for the first time
• Venezuela marched greatly on 2011
• They are underdogs this year

In 1975, they suffered a humiliating defeat against the Argentinian side as they have been defeated by 11-0. This is the second biggest lose (or victory, depending on which aspect we are looking at it) in the history of the Copa América. The biggest one is also connected to Argentina, they have trashed Ecuador by a final result of 12-0.

Venezuela have had some minor achievements in the next few years, but they have never really managed to have an actually good team which would be able to surprise the bigger teams. They tied with Colombia and Chile in 1979, and the USA and Uruguay in 1993, but they have never really reached a position that would be worth mentioning.

The march of 2011

They have not made any major and important result in the Copa América from 1967 until 2011. In that year, Venezuela was drawn in the same group with Brazil, Paraguay and Ecuador. Thanks to their previous results in the continental competition, mobile betting sites regarded them as underdogs and also as the team which will surely take the 4th position in the group.

However, the tiny football team has thought about it in a different manner! They have opened their amazing march with a goalless draw against title favourite Brazil, and continued by defeating Ecuador with scoring only one goal. In the last round, they tied with Paraguay on a spectacle match, which ended in 3-3.

This meant that Venezuela has qualified for the quarter-finals of the Copa América on the second place, without a single defeat in the first 3 matches! They have collected the same amounts of points as Brazil, but Brazil’s goal difference was better by one so they went on as firsts. Online internet casinos were proved wrong by Los Llaneros.

In the quarter-finals, La Vinotinto has faced Chile and have knocked them out by a 1-2 result, scoring the winner strike in the 80th minute of the game. Venezuela have faced Paraguay once again in the semi-finals, and the two teams have once again tied each other, this time it was a goalless game. The eventual runner-up went on to the final on penalties as they defeated Venezuela 3-5 in the shootout. Venezuela finished 4th after suffering their first defeat in the normal gametime. Peru beat them by 4-1.

They are thought to be underdogs this year too

In this year, La Vinotinto is drawn in group C, together with Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Brazil is regarded as favourite for qualifying in the first place, mostly because they can count on star players such as Marcelo or Neymar in their squad. Colombia is believed to be able to secure the second position thanks to the amazing form of their star player, Real Madrid’s number 10 James Rodríguez.

Meanwhile, online gambling sites in Venezuela believe that Peru and Venezuela will fight each other for getting the third place in the group, but the Incas are believed to be clear favourites in this encounter between the two sides. At least they have widely acknowledged players such as Jefferson Farfán or claudio Pizarro, while Venezuela does not have a player of that level.

The best Venezuelan players play for European midtable teams, or stayed in South América to play for Brazilian, Colombian or Venezuelan sides. Football enthusiasts might be familiar with some names from the Venezuelan squad, such as Fernando Amorabieta, for example, who has played for Athletic Bilbao and is now at Middlesbrough.

The top scorer strikers of the team are the 29-year-old Miku, who plays for Rayo Vallecano and has scored 10 goals on 50 international matches, and 25-year-old Salomón Rondón, who scored 12 goald in 38 international matches, and is a member of Zenit Saint Petersburg. However, the player with the most goals is a 35 years old midfielder, Juan Arango, who has participated in 124 matched and score 22 times. He is playing for Mexico-based Tijuana at the moment.

Read more about how to bet on the Copa America here