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For current sports news on this topic, see Venezuela fixtures and results

Venezuela
Nickname(s)	La Vinotinto (The Burgundy)
Association	Federación Venezolana de Fútbol
Confederation	CONMEBOL (South America)
Head coach	César Farías (2007-)
Captain	Luis Vera
Most caps	José Manuel Rey (91)
Top scorer	Ruberth Morán (15)
Home stadium	Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, Estadio José Pachencho Romero
FIFA code	VEN
FIFA ranking	62
Highest FIFA ranking	48 (April 2004)
Lowest FIFA ranking	129 (November 1998)
Elo ranking	44
Home colours 　 Away colours
First international
Panama 3 - 1 Venezuela (Panama City, Panama; 12 February 1938)
Biggest win
Venezuela 6 - 0 Puerto Rico (Barranquilla, Colombia; 26 December 1946)
Biggest defeat
Argentina 11 - 0 Venezuela (Buenos Aires, Argentina; 10 August 1975)
Copa América
Appearances	13 (First in 1967)
Best result	Fifth place, 1967

The Venezuela national football team is the national football team of Venezuela and is controlled by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol. It is nicknamed La Vinotinto (The Red Wine One), because of the traditional burgundy color of their shirts.

It is the only one which has never qualified for a World Cup. Often Venezuela would go through entire qualification tournaments without recording a single win, although this has changed in the last two qualifying rounds. Their best finish in Copa América was fifth in their first entry, in 1967. The team itself has improved a lot in recent years. Analysts tend to say that Venezuela has a chance of qualifying for the next World Cup but that the team has a lot to learn yet. Juan Arango is considered to be the best player in the current team, and gives a lot of support to his team mates.

When playing at home in official games they usually rotate between two stadiums: the Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, in San Cristóbal; the Estadio José Encarnación "Pachencho" Romero, in Maracaibo. In friendly matches they tend to rotate between the rest of the stadiums in the country.

National companies such as Empresas Polar and Telephone suppliers CANTV and Movistar have been giving a lot of financial aid to the team and to the sport itself. The government is not very keen on financing these kind of activities. Nevertheless, Venezuela hosted the Copa América 2007, thus becoming the last country in South America to host this competition.

The Unofficial Football World Championship, and the related Nasazzi's baton title, was briefly held by Venezuela in 2006.

Contents 1 History 1.1 World Cup 1.2 Copa America 2 Current Team 3 World Cup record 4 Copa América record 5 Pan American Games record 6 Most Venezuela caps 7 Top Venezuela goalscorers 8 Selected famous players 9 External links

Venezuela did not participate in World Cup qualifying until the 1966 qualifiers in which they were drawn with Uruguay and Peru, but failed to register a point in four games. In the 1970 qualifiers they managed to register a point, and after withdrawing from the 1974 series, repeated that in the 1978 qualifiers. The 1982 qualifiers saw them register their first win, over Bolivia. They wouldn't register another World Cup qualifying win until the 1994 series when they defeated Ecuador. A highlight of the 1998 qualifiers was goalkeeper Rafael Dudamel scoring against Argentina in a 5-2 defeat.

The 2002 and 2006 qualifiers have seen a tremendous improvement in Venezuela's fortunes, and they are now regarded as a competitive team. They started the 2010 qualifying round by historically beating Ecuador in Quito where the Ecuadorians had previously held a long unbeaten record.

Despite poor results during the 60s and 70s, outstanding players like Luis Mendoza and Rafael Santana achieved renown.

Venezuela first participated in the Copa America in 1967, and finished 5th after defeating Bolivia 3-0 with a side containing Mendoza and Santana. The 1975 tournament saw Venezuela drawn in a group with Brazil and Argentina, and finished bottom with an 11-0 defeat to Argentina. In the 1979 edition, which would be the international swansong for Mendoza and Santana, they drew 0-0 with Colombia and 1-1 with Chile. A highlight of the 1989 tournament was midfielder Carlos Maldonado's 4 goals. In the 1993 series, Venezuela drew with Uruguay and the United States.

The team's overall Copa América record has been pretty poor, but the "Auge Vinotinto" (Vinotinto Rise) period in the early 2000s brought increased attention to the sport in the country, which in turn brought increased support from both government and private institutions. Said support contributed greatly to the "Vinotinto's" rise in quality. In 2007, during the Copa América held in Venezuela, the team progressed to the quarterfinals for the first time in its history afer finishing first in a group containing Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay. Venezuela's 2-0 victory over Perú during the competition was its first Copa América victory since 1967.

Below is the squad that played for the Copa América 2007 and Recent World Cup Qualifiers. Goals and Caps are as of Nov. 20 2007:

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club 1 GK Renny Vicente Vega 4 July 1979 26 0 Bursaspor 2 DF Luis José Vallenilla 13 March 1974 77 1 Nea Salamis FC 3 DF José Manuel Rey 20 May 1975 91 8 AEK Larnaca 4 DF Oswaldo Vizcarrondo 31 May 1984 12 0 Rosario Central 5 MF Miguel Mea Vitali 19 February 1981 71 1 Unión Atlético Maracaibo 6 DF Alejandro Cichero 24 April 1977 47 2 PFC Litex Lovech 7 FW José Torrealba 13 June 1980 14 3 Deportivo Táchira 7 FW Nicolas Fedor 19 August 1985 11 2 Gimnàstic de Tarragona 8 MF Luis Vera 9 March 1973 53 2 Caracas FC 8 MF Cesar Gonzalez 1 October 1982 18 1 Colón de Santa Fe 9 FW Giancarlo Maldonado 29 June 1982 31 11 Atlante Fútbol Club 11 MF Ricardo David Paez 9 February 1979 64 7 Veria FC 12 GK Javier Toyo 12 October 1977 7 0 Atlético Bucaramanga 13 DF Leonel Vielma 30 August 1978 49 3 Independiente de Santa Fe 14 MF Alejandro Guerra 9 July 1985 23 3 Caracas FC 15 FW Fernando de Ornelas 29 July 1976 26 5 Odd Grenland BK 16 MF Edder Pérez 3 July 1983 24 4 C.S. Marítimo 17 DF Jorge Alberto Rojas 1 October 1977 76 1 America de Cali 18 FW Juan Arango 16 May 1980 70 13 RCD Mallorca 19 FW Daniel Arismendi 4 July 1982 15 8 Unión Atlético Maracaibo 20 DF Héctor Gonzalez 4 November 1983 53 4 AEK Larnaca 21 DF Enrique Andrés Rouga 2 March 1982 20 0 Alki Larnaca 22 MF Pedro Fernández 27 July 1977 3 0 AEK Larnaca

• 1930 to 1954 - Did not enter
• 1958 - Withdrew
• 1962 - Did not enter
• 1966 - Did not qualify
• 1970 - Did not qualify
• 1974 - Withdrew
• 1978 to 2006 - Did not qualify

• 1916 to 1957 - Did not enter
• 1959 - Did not enter
• 1959 - Did not enter
• 1963 - Did not enter
• 1967 - Fifth place
• 1975 - Round 1
• 1979 - Round 1
• 1983 - Round 1
• 1987 - Round 1
• 1989 - Round 1
• 1991 - Round 1
• 1993 - Round 1 (overall 11th place)
• 1995 - Round 1 (overall 12th place)
• 1997 - Round 1 (overall 12th place)
• 1999 - Round 1 (overall 12th place)
• 2001 - Round 1 (overall 12th place)
• 2004 - Round 1 (overall 11th place)
• 2007 - Quarterfinals (overall 6th place)

• 1951 - Fourth place
• 1955 - Fourth place
• 1959 to 1979 - Did not compete
• 1983 - Round 1
• 1987 to 2003 - Did not compete

Player	National team career	Caps (Goals)
José Manuel Rey	1997-present	91 (8)
Gabriel Urdaneta	1996-2005	77 (9)
Luis José Vallenilla	1996-present	77 (1)
Jorge Alberto Rojas	1999-present	76 (1)
Miguel Ángel Mea Vitali	1999-present	71 (1)
Juan Arango	1999-present	70 (13)
Ruberth Morán	1996-present	65 (15)
Leopoldo Jiménez	1999-2005	64 (0)
Ricardo David Páez	2000-present	64 (7)
Rafael Dudamel	1993-2007	56 (1)
Héctor GONZÁLEZ	2001-present	53 (4)

Player	National team career	Goals (Caps)
Ruberth Morán	1996-present	15 (65)
Juan Arango	1999-present	13 (70)
Giancarlo Maldonado	2003-present	11 (31)
Gabriel Urdaneta	1996-2005	9 (77)
José Manuel Rey	1997-present	8 (91)
Daniel Arismendi	2006-present	8 (15)
Juan Garcia	1993-2004	7 (47)
Ricardo David Páez	2000-present	7 (64)
José Luis Dolgetta	1993-1997	6 (21)

• Juan Arango
• José Luis Dolgetta
• Rafael Dudamel
• Massimo Margiotta
• Luis Mendoza
• Alejandro Moreno
• Ruberth Morán
• Stalin Rivas
• Gabriel Urdaneta
• Félix Hernandez
• Giancarlo Maldonado

• (Spanish) Federacion Venezolana De Fútbol The Venezuelan soccer federation website.
• (Spanish) La Vinotinto - The last news about Venezuelan professional soccer and more.
• Venezuela - Record International Players (at RSSSF)

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