How a Golden Generation took Chile from afterthought to two-time champions
In 2006, Chile were all but irrelevant. They hadn't been to either of the last two World Cups and had crashed out of their last Copa America without a single win. La Roja weren't even in the top 60 in the world.
A decade later, Chile aren't just relevant. Thanks to their penalty kick victory over Argentina in Sunday's Copa America Centenario final, La Roja have now won Copa America in consecutive years, been to the knockout stages of consecutive World Cups and rank fifth in the world (and probably climbing).
All it took was 10 years to go from nobody to multiple-time champion and world powerhouse.
Chile's rise defies belief. Teams aren't supposed to do what they did. But one look at their roster explains it all.
Alexis Sanchez got his first cap in 2006, along with Gonzalo Jara and Humberto Suazo, and Arturo Vidal made his national team debut the following year. That same year, Mauricio Isla, Gary Medel and Francisco Silva joined the Chile squad and Claudio Bravo also took over as La Roja's captain.
With that, Chile took off.
They made it to the quarterfinals at Copa America in 2007, with Humberto Suazo scoring three goals in the tournament. Three years later, they were back at the World Cup and there, they made it out of the group and had jumped all the way up to No. 10 in the world. It was a leap unlike any other team in the world had made over four years, and La Roja's golden era was only just beginning.
At Copa America 2011, Chile won their group. That summer, Sanchez joined Barcelona, confirming his status as one of the best in the world. Vidal also made a move, signing with Juventus and within two years, he was the mega-club's Player of the Season.
By the time the 2014 World Cup came around, Chile had world class players and hopes were high. They did their part to live up to them too, making it out of their group once again, but this time doing it by beating defending champions Spain to book their spot in the next round. It was a major statement for Chile on the world stage, and all that stopped them from going further was hosts Brazil getting the best of them on penalty kicks.
That set the stage for Copa America 2015. The tournament was being played on home soil and Chile were no longer just plucky upstarts -- they were contenders. Backed by a raucous home crowd, Chile won the title without dropping a single match. Bravo was named Best Goalkeeper, Eduardo Vargas was the tournament's joint top scorer and, for the first time in the country's history, Chile were the champions of South America.
Chile had done it. They were a true world power. And just in case people questioned whether they could do it without home field advantage, La Roja went out and won Copa America Centenario, beating Argentina in the final again. This time it was on neutral ground, in the United States. It may have taken penalties, as was the case in 2015, but Chile were cool under pressure and their stars came through.
Bravo won Best Goalkeeper (again). Sanchez won the Golden Ball. Jara, Medel and Isla were all on the team and Vidal had a shout as the tournament's best player. It was that group of players who had come into the team in 2006 and 2007, aided by a few new additions (like Vargas), and they were champions again. Not only leading their country to heights never before seen, but doing it in consecutive years.
Chile have benefitted from some good managers (all of them Argentine), from Marcelo Bielsa, to Jorge Sampaoli and now Juan Antonio Pizzi, but in this time, the managers have changed. They've gone through several of them, different approaches and different tactics, even if all leaned upon the team's magnificent ability to press. The players are the one constant.
Bravo now stands as the most capped player in Chile history, with Sanchez, Medel and Jara right behind them and Vidal and Isla also in the top eight. They are the core of Chile's Golden Generation. But even that doesn't do them justice.
Golden Generation is used to talk about the most talented group of players a country has ever had, even its most successful. But this group of Chile players have done much more than anyone could have imagined. They've turned the team from an afterthought into one that isn't just relevant -- it's a powerhouse. And now they're two-time champions.
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