{"id":23422,"date":"2018-06-12T13:51:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T18:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=23422"},"modified":"2018-06-12T13:51:43","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T18:51:43","slug":"panamas-julio-dely-valdes-weve-taken-giant-leap-huge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/panamas-julio-dely-valdes-weve-taken-giant-leap-huge\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama\u2019s Julio Dely Vald\u00e9s: \u2018We\u2019ve taken a giant leap \u2013 this is huge\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Panama\u2019s greatest ever player discusses what it means for them to be at the World Cup, four years after narrowly missing out.<\/p>\n

H<\/span><\/span>e <\/strong>had seen them sobbing four years earlier and now he watched in silence as the tears returned, but it was different this time. Rom\u00e1n Torres had just scored the late, late goal that took Panama to the World Cup<\/a> for the first time in their history; 5,000 miles away, the country\u2019s finest ever footballer was watching on television, struggling to contain his emotion. \u201cI couldn\u2019t shout as much as I would have liked because I was in Spain and it was the middle of the night: I would have woken the neighbours,\u201d Julio Dely Vald\u00e9s says, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain; the feeling was immense. I knew what they\u2019d been through<\/p>\n

Few could grasp quite like him what this meant. Dely Vald\u00e9s played in Argentina, Uruguay, France, Italy and Spain, but never at the World Cup<\/a>. His older brother Armando, who died in 2001, played in Argentina, Uruguay and Israel and had a stadium in Col\u00f3n named in his honour. And Julio\u2019s twin Jorge followed him to Argentina then Uruguay\u2019s Nacional, before playing in Chile and Japan. Julio, with 44 caps and 15 goals, and Jorge retired from international football together in October 2005. Julio scored over 120 goals at Paris Saint-Germain, Cagliari, Oviedo and M\u00e1laga; of Panama\u2019s likely squad this summer a few are in Europe \u2013 Slovenia and Romania, and in the B teams of Deportivo la Coru\u00f1a and Gent. Yet this generation has achieved something unthinkable when he played.<\/p>\n

Only, it is his generation too; these are his<\/em> players, and he embarked on this journey with them. It took an 87th-minute goal to take Panama<\/a> to the World Cup at the expense of the USA in 2018; in 2014 they had been denied the chance to go to a World Cup play-off by a last-minute goal from the USA. Julio Dely Vald\u00e9s was their coach, Jorge his assistant. Most of the players from back then will be in Russia, redemption delivered. \u201cThe dressing room that day \u2026\u201d Dely Vald\u00e9s starts saying. He stops, puffs out his cheeks. \u201cSad,\u201d he adds, slowly. \u201cAll around the room were people sobbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dely Vald\u00e9s became Panama manager in 2006, basically because there was no one else. \u201cThey\u2019d sacked the coach, there were two games coming up and it was like: \u2018Julio can do it.\u2019 My second game we went to Peru, where we\u2019d never won, where we\u2019d been beaten 7-0, and won 0-2. \u2018Ooh!\u2019 Hahaha. \u2018What\u2019s going on here?\u2019 So, I stayed and took charge for five games, before going to Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Panama\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second time was after [English coach] Gary Stempel in 2009,\u201d he continues. \u201cI was lucky: Jorge was Stempel\u2019s assistant and stayed on with me, so I knew what I\u2019d find and I took what I\u2019d learned in Europe. Technically, Panamanian players are good, strong and quick, but undisciplined in every sense \u2013 on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dely Vald\u00e9s was an unusual Panamanian, then. The son of a local government secretary and canal worker, \u201cpunctual, serious, responsible people\u201d, in their son\u2019s words, he takes discipline seriously. \u201cI was lucky I had the authority of who I was [as a player] and I used that. I said: \u2018I won\u2019t allow this, this, or this.\u2019 I told eight or nine key players, leaders, and when there was the slightest act of indiscipline \u2026\u201d He clicks his fingers. \u201cI cut heads. And the others think: \u2018If he\u2019s cut the head off this guy who\u2019s a leader \u2026 oooh!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dely Vald\u00e9s tells the story of the team bus leaving without Luis Tejada, the star striker, who didn\u2019t show up and was left out. Although he returned later and, aged 36 now, will be in Russia, the way Dely Vald\u00e9s tells it, that was an important battle won. When it came to the biggest battle, though, the moment they could have made history, they lost, qualification for 2014 dramatically denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, we had to go through that,\u201d Dely Vald\u00e9s, 51, says. \u201cBut, then, maybe we needed to go through that. It made the national team stronger. Having had it so, so close \u2026 then so far. It was the 91st minute when America scored and they weren\u2019t playing for anything, but we lost the game, eh. We<\/em> did. We were the ones that didn\u2019t know how to manage the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat game will always be in my head, it\u2019s still going around. Four days before, you play Mexico and lose in the last minute so you\u2019ve got the experience, you\u2019ve been warned. Then we play the US, we\u2019re winning 1-0 at half-time and I tell the players: \u2018Remember this: there will be a time when we\u2019ll need to be behind the ball, every one of us, defending to the death.\u2019 The US equalise, we go 2-1 up. It\u2019s the 80th minute, you\u2019re winning 2-1, you have to think: \u2018This is that moment.\u2019 But when we scored to make it 2-1, the players were crying. We were like: \u2018It\u2019s not finished! You\u2019ve got a World Cup place, but you have to protect it with your life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\"Gabriel<\/p>\n

And then it happened. Panama\u2019s dream evaporated. Dely Vald\u00e9s walked away. \u201cI\u2019ll be back, I\u2019m sure, but it had been hard, three tough years, and I wanted to go. We\u2019d developed a lot: a Copa del Oro [Gold Cup] final, another semi-final, so close to the World Cup. We went back to the hotel and when we said goodbye, I said: \u2018Boys, this had to happen. It\u2019s sad but we have to learn from this.\u2019 And we did, I really believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n