Rueda out as Colombia coach after failing to reach World Cup

Colombia’s football association confirmed on Monday that Reinaldo Rueda had been fired as the national team’s coach after the team failed to qualify for the World Cup.

Following a terrible campaign in which they set a national record of seven consecutive matches without scoring a goal, the “Cafeteros” failed to qualify for the global spectacular for the first time since 2010.

Rueda, a Colombian, has previously failed to lead his team to a World Cup, having failed to do so in 2006 during a previous two-year spell in command.

The Colombian Football Federation said in a statement that it had “agreed with Reinaldo Rueda the termination of his position as technical director … as well as his coaching team.”

Despite having a plethora of attacking talents such as Luis Diaz of Liverpool, Duvan Zapata of Atalanta, Radamel Falcao of Rayo Vallecano, and James Rodriguez of Rayo Vallecano, who plays his club football in Qatar, where the World Cup will be held, Colombia’s qualification campaign was derailed by a lack of goals.

They came in sixth place in a single South American group of ten teams, missing out on an intercontinental play-off.

Rueda, 65, took over in January 2021 after Colombia’s terrible qualification campaign under Portuguese Carlos Queiroz, which saw the team lose 3-0 at home to Uruguay and 6-1 on the road to Ecuador.

The goals dried up and the dream of reaching Qatar crumbled after Rueda won his first match 3-0 away to Peru and also guided Colombia to a third-place finish in the 2021 Copa America.

He won seven, drew ten, and lost five of his 22 games in command.

Before choosing a replacement, the Colombian federation claimed it was “considering the existing choices.”

Rueda previously managed Honduras (2010) and Ecuador (2014) at the World Cup, and then spent three years as Chile’s coach before returning to Colombia.