“Don’t make the lion angry”: Waldo Ponce revealed details of Bielsa’s first practice at La Roja | Soccer

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Waldo Ponce, former player and formerly selected from La Roja, told details of how the first training session with Marcelo bielsa in command of the national team.

In interview with AS, the retired defender recalled the first ‘Loco’ microcycle in 2007, when a group of 13 players trained in a sports complex near the Arturo Merino Benítez airport.

“I was on the first payroll, who trained near the airport fields. His way of working was a bit special and new for manyThat of working with sparring partners, of copying a bit of the movements that the boys did before us, was a bit special, ”Ponce began.

Later, he explained that the only knowledge he had of the trans-Andean coach was that “he had been in the Argentine National Team and I knew him because I was Andrés D’Alessandro’s teammate at Wolfsburg and he was a regular at Bielsa, I always called him to Copa América Qualifying ”.

On how was the relationship with Bielsa, Ponce stressed that it was not so close and that the person in charge of sharing more with the players was Luis Bonini, who repeatedly asked them not to anger the ‘Loco’.

“The most professional treatment was from Bielsa and the closest treatment was with Bonini, that the old man was super loving, he was with us,” revealed the former player.

“Bonini told us that ‘we should not make the lion warm’, that we please do not warm him. That we did our jobs well because the lion was going to get angry, ”Ponce closed.

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