ABU DHABI // It’s Pia Bustos Greene’s job to bring Chilean football to the UAE.
As an agent for players from Chile who wish to play here, she is well-acquainted with the country’s talent, and works with their top teams.
“I think we will perform very well. We have a fantastic team,” said Ms Bustos Greene, who lives in Dubai and has been in and out of the country for 18 years.
Chile is grouped this year with Australia, Spain and the Netherlands, the latter two being finalists in the last World Cup. It’s a tough match, but Ms Bustos Greene said she believes the players will do their “very best”.
“I’m sure our boys will have a very good performance,” she said. “We have very, very good players and our coach is a superb coach so hopefully we will do a good job.”
Francisco Araya is cheering for his native country first – but if his national team loses, he will support any team from his continent.
“I’m really realistic. Even though we have a really good team, I think we’re going to make the second round,” said Mr Araya, who is director of the School of Culinary and Finishing Arts in Dubai.
Should the Chileans progress, they would have to play Brazil.
“It’s very difficult to beat Brazil in their own home,” said Mr Araya, 40, from Santiago.
Chile’s biggest football rival in the tournament is Argentina.
“For a long time, it was on their side, but in the past eight years it’s been levelled,” said Mr Araya.
Brazil and Argentina are traditionaly South America’s best teams, but Ms Bustos Greene believes her country could soon catching up.
“They have been top teams for many, many years, but also now Chile is becoming very, very strong,” she said.
This year the Chileans had their best qualifying run in the lead-up to the World Cup, with five victories and a draw. Among the team’s standouts are Alexis Sanchez, the 25-year-old winger or forward who plays for FC Barcelona, and Eduardo Vargas, 24, a winger or forward for Valencia and Napoli, as well as attacking midfielders Matias Fernandez and Arturo Vidal, who has just recovered from an injury.
Among the favourites of Attilio Rigotti, a student at New York University Abu Dhabi, is Gary Medel, a midfielder and defender who most recently played in Cardiff City in the Premier League.
“Despite being relegated, he was one of the star players of the team with his passion, strength and perseverance,” said Mr Rigotti.
Coach Jorge Sampaoli has a “strong, attacking mentality,” said Mr Rigotti, like previous coach Marcelo Bielsa, who had the Chileans playing as one of the top teams on the continent.
But the draw was “terrible”, with Chile matched in one of the more difficult groups against the Dutch and Spanish, as well as the Australians.
The Netherlands and Spain faced off in the final in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, after the Dutch overtook Brazil in a surprising result during the quarter-finals.
“Yet I think it’s a clear sign of how far our team has come that, despite the rough draw, we have high hopes we can somehow manage to pull it off,” he said.
“The practical side of me thinks it’s going to be very tough for us to manage to pass the group phase. But the optimist in me thinks if there ever was a chance for us to beat Spain and/or the Netherlands, it’s going to be this year, in this World Cup.”
With his grandfather’s side of the family being from Italy, Mr Rigotti will also cheer on the Italians, and hopes they do not have to face the Chileans should Chile progress past the group stages.
He plans to stream the games online or find Latin American restaurants where he can watch them during this summer, when he will be travelling, he said.
“I’ll definitely be catching the first, critical couple of matches against Australia, Spain and England back home, with a big family gathering,” he said.
lcarroll@thenational.ae
