Why two South American coaches fell on their swords

During his three-year tenure, Luis Fernando Suárez (right) turned Ecuador into a World Cup team and near quarterfinalist in 2006. Odd Anderson/AFP/Getty Images

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Two coaches fell on their swords as a consequence of the action last week in the third and fourth rounds of South America's World Cup qualification campaign.

Ecuador's Luis Fernando Suárez and Venezuela's Richard Páez have both resigned -- and the moral of the story is that dealing with success and expectations can be a very tricky business.

Imagine, back in 1996, if you had predicted the following: that Ecuador would have made it to two consecutive World Cups, and in the second, on European soil, had come reasonably close to a place in the quarterfinals.

Or that Venezuela would pick up momentum, start stringing together some victories, and that after four rounds of the current qualifying campaign, would be lying fifth -- a position which, if it can hold on, gives it the right to play off against the fourth-place team in CONCACAF for a place in South Africa 2010.

From the perspective of 11 years ago, these scenarios seemed pure pipe dreams. They have become reality. Even so, Suárez, who took Ecuador to new heights, and Páez, the architect of Venezuela's rise, both came to the conclusion that it wasn't enough, and decided to step down.

Both countries have been massively helped by a change that was instigated in '96. Up to that point, most international soccer in South America took place on a tournament basis. There was the Copa América, which itself had fallen into semi-obscurity in the 1960s and '70s before being brought back in '87. And there were the World Cup qualifiers, quick campaigns, with the countries divided into two or three groups, soon over and done with.

In between, there were gaps between competitive international fixtures which could go on for years. For the likes of Brazil and Argentina, it was relatively easy to line up lucrative and high-profile friendlies in these fallow times. For Ecuador and Venezuela, unglamorous whipping boys, it was all but impossible.

So in '96, when the South American Federation introduced the marathon format of World Cup qualifiers, with all 10 nations playing each other home and away in one big group, these were the nations that benefited most. Finally they had the kind of structure that European national teams take for granted: regular competitive matches, with the opportunity to hire a coach for a long-term project, and grow in terms of confidence and tactical awareness.

Ecuador had the added benefit of the altitude of Quito. While the team showed in Germany last year that it is more than mountain specialists, there is no doubt that its qualification for the World Cups of '02 and '06 was firmly based on its home record.

Indeed, before the current campaign got underway, Suárez was concerned that altitude would no longer bring the same advantages. As a consequence of Ecuador's success, its players were now based all over the world, and would now have to face the same problems as their opponents in terms of adapting to the rarefied mountain air.

This appeared to be confirmed when they lost the opening game 1-0 at home to Venezuela. Cracks in the structure of the side started to appear, with the stalwarts aging together and Suárez, in hindsight anyway, arriving at the conclusion that he had tried to rebuild the team too quickly. After two heavy away defeats -- to Brazil and Paraguay -- Suárez threw in the towel.

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