فوت هوستازي | News | World Cup – Double “Za”

If the name of one is mentioned, the name of the other must be mentioned, Ivan “The Terrible” Zamorano and Marcelo “The Matador” Salas, so much so that some thought they were siblings because their names were related.

Chile does not have a great history, until a historic generation emerged that won the 2015 and 2016 Copa America titles, respectively, at the expense of Argentina.

But before that, Chile’s results varied, whether in continental or international participation.

Despite the strength and greatness of the historic Chilean duo, they met together during the 1998 World Cup, and La Roja’s career under their leadership ended at the price of the final against Brazil.

All this and the age difference between them is 7 years.

A different life

Zamorano was born in 1967, and because of his father’s work in the mines, he moved from the capital Santiago to Atacama to play football and his goal is to play for his favorite club, Colo Colo.

Zamorano recalled his childhood and his beginnings in previous statements to the Spanish “Marca”, saying: “We suffered financially. I was helping my family by doing odd jobs such as cleaning cars and windows and anything that pays me. We will use this money to buy food.”

“I just wanted to play football, nothing else was important. I played as long as I could in the park and on the streets with my friends.”

“My dad comes looking for me when it gets dark as the area wasn’t always the safest but we were happy. We had a happy childhood and my family encouraged me to play football. They knew I had a talent.”

7 thousand kilometers away in Temako, 7 years later, Salas was born, but in completely different circumstances, to a father who was primarily a football coach and helped him develop his talent.

Despite the different environment and circumstances in which the duo met and shared the same position, this did not prevent him from leading La Roja to return to the World Cup after 16 years of absence in France 1998.

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Zamorano began his professional career with the Chilean Cobrisal during 4 years, and it was not easy, as he spent a season on loan to a third-tier team in which he discovered his abilities during 1986.

At the age of 20, Zamorano scored more than 50 domestic goals, and the peak of his domestic career came with Cobrisal in the Chilean Cup in 1987. Zamorano scored 12 goals in 14 matches during the group stages, then qualified for the final against his favorite team, Colo Colo.

Zamorano scored again in the final as Coprisal, a club barely founded eight years ago, crowned its first title.

That opened the door for the terrible to become an international player when he participated against Peru, during which he scored his first international goals, and during 12 international matches, he scored only two goals before leaving for Europe from the Swiss Saint Galen gate in 1988.

In Europe, after only two seasons, during which Zamorano scored 34 goals in 56 games and won the award for the best professional in the Swiss League, he became a strong striker in headers and on a physical level was incomparable with the strikers of South America.

Zamorano talked about the beginning of professionalism, “I wanted to buy a house for my family when I had money in my hands, the salaries in Europe were better than Chile, I bought a car to go to training and then spent most of my salary after that on my family to buy a house for them.”

In the 1991 Copa America, despite Zamorano’s slow start with the national team, the tournament served as a real starting point, scoring 5 goals, one more than Omar Gabriel Batisuta, and La Roja third.

Zamorano moved to Seville in 1992, and there he formed a double with Davor Suker, the top scorer of Croatia, who then described him as the second best player he participated in the attack after Salas, and then joined Real Madrid and spent 4 seasons in the royal shirt.

Zamorano has already made some big strides in his professional career. While Salas was a teenager.

At the same time, Salas was taking his first step towards professional play, to play for the Unversidad de Chile team after one season, he was promoted to the first team. During 1993 and 1996, he scored 76 goals in 126 games and won the league title twice.

Salas’s first meeting in the La Roja shirt came against Argentina at the age of 19, and just like Zamorano, he celebrated his first international goal in the first meeting, and Ivan also scored in the exciting match that ended in a 3-3 draw.

In March 1995, the pair scored together against Mexico in a friendly match that ended in a 2-2 draw.

Zamorano missed Chile in the 1995 Copa America due to injury, and Salas appeared but was not able to carry the La Roja battalion alone in a forgettable participation.

The terrible Zamorano was crowned top scorer in the Spanish League and the best foreign player in the 1994-95 season and won 3 titles with Real Madrid, and in the summer of 1996 he joined the ranks of Italian Inter.

Real Madrid’s official website had previously described its striker, giving him praise: “A striker with a good sense of scoring, his greatest virtues were the headers on goal. Zamorano was not very tall (1.79), but his strong legs allowed him to stay in the air much longer than the defenders. During his time in Spain, he headed some of the most exciting goals ever“.

Evan’s brilliance in header balls made the French call him “the chopper”, especially as he learned how to reach the ball with his head by training in his childhood trying to reach with his head a light bulb hanging in his hallway simulating the ball.

Salas’ performance in the 1996 Copa Libertadores attracted the attention of the Argentine giant, River Plate, who moved to him at the expense of rivals Boca Juniors thanks to a decision by his family.

Salas won 3 local league titles with River Plate and then won the Copa Sud Americana to take his first step towards Europe from the Italian Lazio gate in 1998, two years after Zamorano moved to Italy, after brilliance in the World Cup.

The beginning together with the La Roja shirt began in 1994, but they met in the same league after 4 years thanks to the World Cup.

1998 World Cup

Chile has been a regular participant in the Copa America, and the World Cup has been elusive for them since 1982.

Zamorano and Salas inherited a heavy legacy.

In 1989, Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas claimed a head injury from Brazil fans throwing fireworks at his head.

This later ended with Chile being excluded from the 1990 World Cup finals, and Rojas was banned for life and Chile was banned from participating in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers.

The 1998 World Cup qualifiers were held for the first time in South America from one group and the goal was to qualify with 4 other teams, alongside Brazil, the 1994 world champion.

At the time, Zamorano was 30 and Salas was 23, experience mixed with youth to be a miracle.

In the first 8 rounds of qualifiers, Chile fought 6 matches away from the ground, and by the halfway point, La Roja was 9 points behind in the standings behind the top four qualifying for the French World Cup.

Zamorano rebounded, scoring 5 goals in the 6-0 victory over Venezuela, and Salas scored a hat-trick against Colombia.

La Roja lost to Uruguay and Argentina to make the task difficult.

Salas is back again and scored a necessary hat-trick against Peru.

In the end, Chile qualified at the expense of Peru with a goal difference (+14 for Chile versus -1 for Peru) after they tied with 25 points in the standings, the duo scored 23 goals together (12 for Zamorano and 11 for Salas), compared to 19 goals for the Peruvian team.

23 goals scored by the pair, which is the same number of goals scored by all Argentine players and also Colombia in the qualifiers, 9 goals more than any other team.

Zamorano became the top scorer in the qualifiers, surpassing all the stars of the Latin continent.

The Chilean duo was called “Za-sa”, with the same weight as the Brazilian “Ra-Ru” duo, which refers to the duo Ronaldo and Romario.

Before reaching the 1998 World Cup, the question here is how did the Chilean duo create this exciting duo in the La Roja shirt?

Nobody liked the number 9 like Zamorano, when Ronaldo joined Inter and got the number 9 shirt, Ivan switched to number 18 and in order to circumvent this he put a + sign between the number 8 + 1 to become 9 instead of 18.

Zamorano was strong and had perseverance to protect the ball from strong defenders, at the same time he knew how to give his teammates the opportunity to bring out their best, especially as he was next to Davor Suker, Brian Laudrup and Ronaldo the phenomenon, and although he is not tall (1.79), he was wonderful in the aerial rise.

On the contrary, Salas was distinguished by speed and shooting with both feet and most importantly talent, to complement Ivan’s strength what Salas possesses to provide a double that will remain historical in football.

In France, Salas fell behind against Italy after Christian Vieri scored two goals, but Roberto Baggio’s penalty ended the match with a 2-2 draw.

Salas scored again against Austria and they tied with a late goal, then they tied in the third round against Cameroon without scoring, to qualify Chile in second place behind the Azzurri.

In the final price, Chile met with Brazil, the champion of the previous version. The first half ended with a score of 3-0 for samba, but Salas’s goal was immediately followed by a goal by Ronaldo, who ended La Roja’s campaign in the World Cup.

Beginning of the End

In the 1999 Copa America, things were reversed. Zamorano starred and scored 3 goals. Chile only finished fourth, and Salas did not score.

Zamorano competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as one of three over-23 players on the team. His Golden Boot helped his team win a bronze medal in the tournament.

In the Copa America 2001, neither of them were present, so Chile’s participation in the quarter-finals ended.

In complete contrast, in the World Cup qualifiers, Chile did not repeat what it had achieved before, bottoming out the standings with 12 points from 18 matches.

La Roja scored 15 goals, 8 of them equally between Salas and Zamorano, with 4 for each player.

The bright spot in the qualifiers for La Roja is the victory over Brazil with three without a response, and a match that some describe as the best end to the “Za-Sa” duo together.

At the end of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, Zamorano retired as the best scorer in his country’s history with 34 goals.

He moved to Mexico in the Club America shirt, then fulfilled his life’s dream of playing for the Colo Colo team, then retired permanently in 2003.

On the other hand, injuries affected Salas’s career after his move to Juventus, so Argentina returned again in the River Plate shirt to spend two seasons, then Universidad de Chile fought 4 seasons, while with Chile he spent his international retirement in 2007 after reaching 37 goals, smashing Ivan’s record to become the historical top scorer for La Roja, and retired definitively in 2008.

Now Alexis Sanchez is the all-time top scorer for La Roja but he owes his credit to the “Za-Sa” double, telling the Marseille official website: “I think when I was younger, Zamorano and Salas were always present at that time, they are an example to the youth and all Chileans“.