A recurring question occupies the minds of professionals, friends, and family every time I have had the good fortune to coach a national team: Don’t you miss the day-to-day life of the clubs? If those who have not had the experience knew how I work with national teams, they would see the frenetic pace of an elite team as a relief!
I have now managed two national teams in my 43 years. The specific nature of the job of national team coach deserves an article in itself to explain the key aspects of the work I have done in preparing for two World Cup qualifiers (Qatar 2022 and United 2026), a Gold Cup qualifier (2025) and promotion to the top group in the Concacaf Nations League (Nations League A for 2025, 2026 and 2027); as well as in the development of talent for high performance in the Panama U21 and U23 National Teams, which now make up almost half of the group that will attempt to reach the World Cup finals for the second time in its history next September. Join me as I delve into the exciting world of preparing a national team for the sole objective that millions of people, compatriots, who cheer and pressure in equal measure, desire: to win.
The first step
15 November 2024. It is 11 p.m. in San Salvador. The Cuscatlán stadium empties as the players, after celebrating their victory in matchday 6 of Group A of League B of the Nations League on the pitch with their teammates, families and friends, slowly make their way to the dressing room. On the hundred steps separating the entrance to the pitch from the dressing room, the camaraderie between each player, member of the coaching staff and myself translates into shouts of joy and hugs to celebrate the fact that, one year later, La Selecta is back in League A of the Nations League. And, incidentally, it has qualified directly for the 2025 Gold Cup. With one more victory in the two remaining World Cup qualifying matches in June 2025, the team would be in the final phase, the last round of qualifying for United 2026: six matches away from the dream return to the competition that saw them bid farewell in 1982 for 42 years…
How did I approach this achievement on 1 January 2024, when I took charge of the El Salvador national team, a team that had gone seventeen games in a row (a year and seven months) without winning a match? How do you turn a broken, aimless team into a winning team in the best competitions? I’ll tell you below.
It is impossible to summarise an entire year of work based on more than ten years of experience in elite football in one article. Here are the basic parameters around which my work system revolves, allowing me to approach each project with a general foundation and specific adaptation:
Understand the competition
Although all the national teams in the world fight every four years for a common goal, to reach the World Cup, each confederation has its own competition system, apart from its own competition; and on top of that, you have to identify the specific characteristics of the federation you work for, the national team and the country. My experience in Panama at Qatar 2022 and at the Central American Club Cup in 2023 gave me a perfect understanding of the context. When previous experience is not so specific, as has happened on other occasions, the organisation of the team study, the comparison with my scout, the analysis of recent performance through data (Opta/Wyscout) and the standard template for presentations together with my reference software (ScoutYouPro) allow me to have control over the context I am addressing within 24-48 hours. In this case, my practical knowledge was added to this systematic organisation: I was clear about which players were missing from the squad, what organisational model the competition required, and how to approach their preparation.
The first objective was to win some of the friendly matches played up to June while shaping the core squad and helping the players who would form the backbone of the team to assimilate the system. The second objective was to achieve one draw and one victory in the two matches in June (out of the four to be played in this second round, with Swiss groups of five teams). In these groups, it is essential to score points every match day, and an average of a win at home and a draw away will get you through, as two teams out of the five qualify. I’ll give you a heads up: with the team having assimilated the system perfectly, and after failing to secure a win against very tough opponents (Inter Miami, draw; Honduras, draw; and defeats against Costa Rica and Argentina), in June the long-awaited victory came after two years and the goal of a draw and a win was achieved. The Nations League remained for September, October and November in a group of four teams. Only two home games, the last two. And they were promoted with five wins out of six games. Adding a friendly against Guatemala, played in July 2024, which was won, the numbers stood at seven wins out of fifteen matches, with four draws and four defeats, the best numbers in the last five years for La Selecta. How important would you say it is to know the competition you are playing in order to optimise performance and apply your efforts at the decisive moments?
Understand the concentrations and the players
To achieve this performance, it is necessary to know how the place where you work operates. National teams in Central America give greater weight to the national team than to clubs. Collaboration between the federation and the league is considered essential so that the functioning of the local competition enhances the work of the national team and, in turn, the national team improves the performance of the league. This involves developing intermittent but recurring work with local players who, playing in the country’s league, are often called up to the national team. As FIFA windows are scheduled five times a year and players competing outside the country are required to attend, between windows we have weeks that can be devoted to team training in order to assimilate the system, the working methodology and the key ideas, as well as being able to call up young players or those who stand out in the local competition who would otherwise be very difficult to train. This advantage over teams from other confederations, which can only count on players during official windows, allows the intensity and lack of time during FIFA weeks throughout the year to be offset by prior basic preparation that ensures players arrive at the match with clear ideas. That is why we must take advantage of every microcycle, every training session, in what is truly essential.
Understand the fans’ objectives
Being responsible for the results of a team followed by more than ten million people is a huge demand. I love that pressure! And it’s much easier to handle if you know what people want. We all want to win. Watching your country’s team play game after game for two years without a single victory is a burden that, under national sentiment, is mitigated by the hope that next time will be different. And it’s a momentum that must be harnessed: people love their team. And they want you to give your all to represent them. Every step you take with that responsibility on your shoulders requires the awareness that nothing will be left in your hands to unite so many people in the excitement of victory. If the job of a coach requires implicit passion and a professional organisational system, the job of a national team coach requires something more, and that something more has an emotional charge of unlimited strength. Knowing how to convey to the players the physical and mental sensations I feel as part of their family, that of an entire country, embraced by a flag, is synonymous with success when it comes to competing by putting a system, a strategy, an operational plan on the table. You can win and you can lose, but that’s how we undoubtedly get closer to success. And I refer to the evidence.
