The Bolivia national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol de Bolivia), also known as La Verde, has represented Bolivia in international football since 1926. Organized by the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF),[A] it is one of the 10 members of FIFA's South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).
After playing in the 1930 and 1950World Cups, they have qualified just once, in 1994 where they lost 1–0 to defending champions Germany in the tournament's opening match. Bolivia have never advanced past the first round of any World Cup, and have only scored one goal, in 1994. However, they did win the Copa América at home in 1963, and finished runners-up in their following tournament as hosts in 1997. At the 2015 Copa América in Chile, after defeating Ecuador 3–2, they advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1997. This also ended a winless streak in the Copa América, with their last win being on 28 June 1997, when they defeated Mexico 1–0 in the semi-finals.[5]
Bolivia national team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup before their match against Yugoslavia.
Bolivia debuted in international football in 1926, one year after the Bolivian Football Federation was founded. As participants at the 1926 South American Championship in Chile, Bolivia scored first against the hosts, but wound up being defeated by the Chileans 7–1. Bolivia also lost their following three matches, 0–5 against Argentina, 1–6 against Paraguay and 0–6 against Uruguay.[6]
In 1930, Bolivia was one of the teams invited to the inaugural edition of the World Cup, held in Uruguay. Drawn in Group 2 of the 1930 World Cup, Bolivia lost both its games 4–0, first to Yugoslavia at the Estadio Parque Central, and then to Brazil in the Estadio Centenario.[7] The match versus the Yugoslavs would be the last match against non-South American opposition for Bolivia until 1972 – when they again met Yugoslavia.[8] They returned in the 1950 World Cup, where Argentina's withdrawal from the qualifiers led Bolivia to an automatic berth. With three teams declining to play in Brazil, Bolivia was put in a group of two along with Uruguay. The Bolivians' only game was an 8–0 defeat to Uruguay at the Estádio Independência in Belo Horizonte.[9]
The Bolivian squad that won its first and only Copa América title.
Bolivia's greatest football achievement was the 1963 South American Championship title, which they hosted and had the advantage of being better used to the higher altitudes.[10] Afterwards, the country only started to resurge at an international level with the creation of the Academia Tahuichi Aguilera in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in 1978, a football school that revealed players such as Marco Etcheverry, Erwin Sánchez and Luis Cristaldo. Under Spanish coach Xabier Azkargorta and featuring nine players from Tahuichi, Bolivia surprisingly became the first team to beat Brazil in the South American qualifiers while playing them in La Paz, and qualified for the 1994 World Cup finishing second in Group B of the CONMEBOL qualifiers behind the Brazilians themselves.[11] Bolivia was drawn into the tournament's Group C, and got selected as the adversary of defending champions Germany in the tournament's opening match. Bolivia played a great first half, outplaying Germany. In the second half, Lothar Matthäus took a 40-yard run and with a high elbow to the jaw leveled Marco El Diablo Etcheverry. Etcheverry retaliated and was sent off. Eventually, Bolivia lost on an offside goal by Klinsman. Following a goalless draw with South Korea at Foxboro Stadium, Bolivia returned to Chicago and lost 3–1 to Spain, with Sánchez scoring the first ever Bolivian goal in the World Cup.[12] Following that Bolivia again hosted the South American Championship, now known as Copa América, in 1997. Again, the team reached the final, to finish as runner-up to Brazil.[10]
In the 2015 Copa América in Chile, Bolivia were in Group A, with Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador. In their match against Mexico, Bolivia drew 0–0. However, against Ecuador, Bolivia won 3–2, with goals from Raldes, Smedberg-Dalence, and Moreno. From this victory against Ecuador, Bolivia made it to the next round, the quarter-finals, for the first time since the 1997 tournament, in which they hosted it.[13] Bolivia were defeated by Peru 1–3 in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Bolivia's only goal of the game was a penalty in the last minutes of the match by Marcelo Moreno.
Stadium[]
Bolivia plays their home matches at Estadio Hernando Siles, which has an altitude of 3,637 metres (11,932 ft) above sea level, making it one of the highest football stadiums in the world. Many visiting teams protest that the altitude gives Bolivia an unfair advantage against opponents. On 27 May 2007, FIFA declared that no World Cup Qualifying matches could be played in stadiums above 8,200 feet (2,500 m) above sea level. However, FIFA raised the altitude limit after months of campaigning against the ban, thus allowing the stadium to continue holding World Cup qualifying matches.
Team image[]
Kit history[]
Bolivia's first uniforms were all white. In the 1930 FIFA World Cup, Bolivia painted before the starting match with Yugoslavia one of the letters in "Viva Uruguay" in each of the eleven starters' jerseys to please the local crowd. In the following game with Brazil, given the adversary also wore white Bolivia instead borrowed Uruguay's own blue uniform to play. Bolivia again painted a message to the hosts in the 1945 South American Championship, with the players' jerseys reading "Viva Chile". In 1946, Bolivia changed their jersey colors to black and white stripes, like the colors of the Cochabamba region. FBF reverted to white the following year. In 1957, FBF decided to use one of the colors in the Flag of Bolivia. Given red and yellow were used by many of the other South Americans, green became the primary color, leading to the nickname "La Verde" ("The Green").[14]
The following 28 players were called up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina on 2, 5 and 9 September 2021, respectively.[15][16] Caps and goals updated as of 24 June 2021, after the game against Uruguay.
1 (12 August 2021)[2]
Chile 7–1 Bolivia 
Uruguay 9–0 Bolivia 
Brazil 10–1 Bolivia 
![[icon]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png){kind=small}
Penalty
Adidas
Umbro
Atletica
Marathon
Walon
16
Argentina 
Venezuela 
Colombia 
Peru 
César Farías
(1926)
Mario Pretto (1950–1952)
Danilo Alvim (1960–1965)
Dan Georgiadis (1966–1967)
Rudi Gutendorf (1974–1978)
Xabier Azkargorta (1993–1994)
Dušan Drašković (1997–1998)
Héctor Veira (1998–2000)
Nelson Acosta (2003–2004)
César Farías (caretaker) (2018)
Servette
Lamia
Lugo
1934
1938
1958
1990
1994
1998
2002
2010
2018
2022
1916
1927
1947
1975
1992
1963
1979
1983
1991
