Costa Rica's fairytale run to their first ever World Cup
quarter-final owes a lot to the coaching philosophy of Portugal's
'Special One' Jose Mourinho, admits their Colombian coach Jorge Luis
Pinto.
Mourinho may never have been a national coach but his success
mainly with Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan has rubbed off on
61-year-old Pinto, who along with his unheralded team has been the
biggest
surprise of the finals. Victories against former champions Uruguay and Italy and a
draw with England in the final group game and a courageous win on
penalties against Greece in the last-16 has given their last-eight
opponents the Netherlands a lot to think about.
Pinto, whose experience at tournaments prior to the World Cup was
limited to coaching Colombia in the 2007 Copa America and Costa Rica at
last year's Gold Cup, says that it is crucial if one is to succeed to
have a consistent coaching routine.
"My first task is the coaching and how to go about it, in
order to get the most out of the training sessions as possible," he
said.
"I agree with Mourinho who says football is first about
training methods: the conception, the practice and of course the
strategy."
Pinto, who began his coaching career with Bogota-based club
Millonarios and has since coached 10 others, is also like Mourinho an
ardent believer in the ethic of work and more work to keep his players
sharp.
That was illustrated in his reaction after the 1-0 win against Italy that guaranteed them a place in the last-16.
"We will not rest on our laurels. Our World Cup is far from
over," said Pinto, who did not want his players to relax and instead
retain their hunger and get the point they needed in the last group game
against England to assure themselves of top spot.
However, now Pinto is willing to bask in what the little
Central American country, sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua and
with a population of just 4.8 million people, has achieved.
"We have shown that we can play good football and that makes me proud," he said.
Pinto, who in 2011 began a second spell as Costa Rica coach
having been in charge from 2004-05, has applied himself rigorously to
the coaching of the players, who largely play for unglamorous clubs.
He draws up the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents
while teaching them the philosophy and training methods of historically
successful teams.
"Football is my life, my passion, my profession and my
distraction!" said Pinto, who has along the way won Colombian, Costa
Rican, Peruvian and Venezuelan league titles.
However, Pinto says that football is no different to other things in life.
"Football evolves like the world, cars, computers. We must
also evolve, in order to keep up with the constant changes in our
sport," he said.
The Costa Ricans face the Dutch in Salvador on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
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