Osvaldo Juan Zubeldía (24 June 1927 in Junín – 17 January 1982 in

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) was a

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player and an influential

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coach.

Playing career

Zubeldía had a respectable playing career with Vélez Sársfield,

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in th ...

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and Banfield and the

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. He was known as an intelligent player who was always well positioned on the field. His legacy, however, would come from his career as a manager.

Managerial career

Early career

His managing career started at

between 1961 and 1963, he led the team to two respectable finishes in the league. He then had an unsuccessful stint on the managing team of the Argentina national team in 1965.

Estudiantes

His managerial career took off with

Estudiantes de La Plata Club Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "Students from La Plata"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata , is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, whe ...

. He was hired by the club in 1965 to help the team stave off relegation; he combined many prospects from Estudiantes' ''la tercera que mata'' ("the killer juveniles") with a small number of outside talent, and built one of the most successful teams in the history of Argentine football. The first championship of the so-called "Golden Era" came in 1967, when Estudiantes became the first "small" team to win an Argentine championship. The team came back from three goals down to beat Platense in the semifinal 4–3, then took the crown with a convincing 3–0 victory over

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. Estudiantes then took second place in the ''Nacional'' championship, qualifying for the 1968

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

, which Estudiantes won after defeating

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ian side

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. In that year's Intercontinental Cup, Estudiantes defeated

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1–0 in

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, and achieved a 1–1 tie at

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on 16 October 1968. The Intercontinental title remains the highest achievement in Estudiantes' history. The team would go on to win the

twice more, in 1969 against Nacional from

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

and in 1970 against Peñarol also from Uruguay. Estudiantes lost their Intercontinental Cup finals to A.C. Milan and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after i ...

, respectively, but they did win the less prestigious

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana ( en, Interamerican Cup) was an annual club football competition contested between a representative from North America (CONCACAF) and South America (CONMEBOL). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACA ...

in 1969.

1974–1982

In 1974, Zubeldía coached the San Lorenzo de Almagro team that won the ''Nacional'' title. He also won two Colombian League titles with

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the oth ...

in 1976 and 1981. On 17 January 1982 Zubeldía died of a

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Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

at the age of 54, while setting a bet on horse race.

Tactics

Zubeldía was a harbinger of tactical changes; he was the first manager to thoroughly research rival team's tactics and playing style. Pre-planned plays off free kicks and tactical fouls to stop rival advances were highly criticized at the time, but have since been adopted by virtually every team in the world. So are other practices, like the

offside trap Offside is one of the laws in association football, codified in Law 11 of the Laws of the Game. The law states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms, are in the opponents' half of the p ...

(having the defense step forward in sync to force opposing players into an offside position) and using screens at corner kicks.

Legacy

Zubeldía's legacy was carried to fruition by the key tactical player of his Estudiantes, Carlos Bilardo, who went on to become one of the most successful coaches in Argentine history. Bilardo dedicated to his mentor both the 1982 ''Metropolitano'' title won by Estudiantes and the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

title won by Argentina.

External links

Estudiantes profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zubeldia, Osvaldo Juan 1927 births 1982 deaths People from Junín, Buenos Aires Argentine people of Basque descent Sportspeople from Buenos Aires Province Argentine footballers Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Boca Juniors footballers Club Atlético Atlanta footballers Club Atlético Banfield footballers Argentine Primera División players Argentine football managers Argentina national football team managers Estudiantes de La Plata managers Club Atlético Huracán managers San Lorenzo de Almagro managers Atlético Nacional managers Association football forwards