Bolivia

Bolivia debuted in international football in 1926, one year after the Bolivian Football Federation was founded, and joined FIFA that same year. As participants at the 1926 South American Championship in Chile, Bolivia played their first match against the hosts on 12 October 1926, and even ended up scoring first against them, 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.

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. The match versus the Yugoslavs would be the last match against non-South American opposition for Bolivia until 1972 – when they again met Yugoslavia. They returned for the 1950 World Cup, where Argentina’s withdrawal from the qualifiers gave Bolivia 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.

Bolivia’s greatest football achievement was the 1963 South American Championship title, which they hosted and won after placing first out of 7 countries, including being undefeated, with five wins and one draw. The only draw for Bolivia in the tournament was a 4–4 draw against Ecuador in the opening match. They also had the advantage of being better accustomed to higher altitudes. In the following edition, the 1967 South American Championship, held in Uruguay, Bolivia finished last out of six teams, with one draw and four losses, which was far below what the public expected, as Bolivia had been the defending champion.

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 developed 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 1994 World Cup qualifiers while playing them in La Paz, with a 2–0 win, and qualified for the 1994 World Cup by finishing second in Group B behind the Brazilians themselves, which included record 7–0 and 7–1 wins over Venezuela during their qualification campaign.

Bolivia was drawn into the tournament’s Group C, and played defending champions Germany in the tournament’s opening match at Soldier Field. Bolivia outplayed Germany in the first half. In the second half, Lothar Matthäus took a 40-yard run and struck Marco “El Diablo” Etcheverry with a high elbow to his jaw. Etcheverry retaliated by fouling Matthäus and was sent off. Eventually, Bolivia lost on a controversial offside goal by Jürgen Klinsmann. Following a goalless draw with South Korea at Foxboro Stadium, where Bolivia was forced to play with ten men again after Cristaldo’s red card, Bolivia returned to Chicago and lost 3–1 to Spain, with Sánchez scoring the first ever Bolivian goal in a World Cup.

Following the World Cup, Bolivia participated in the 1995 Copa América held in Uruguay, with Antonio Lopez Habas as manager, where they made the quarter-finals for the first time since winning the competition in 1963, with one win, one draw, and one loss. In the quarter-finals, the nation lost to hosts Uruguay 2–1. Despite the decent performance the team displayed during the tournament, Lopez Habas left his post shortly before the 1997 Copa America, being replaced by Dušan Drašković. The 1997 edition was the second time Bolivia held the tournament. The team reached the final, as had happened last time Bolivia was the host, but this time they finished runner-up to reigning world champion Brazil after losing 3–1 in the final.

With their runner-up finish at the previous Copa America, Bolivia made their first and only FIFA Confederations Cup appearance in the 1999 edition, this time under new Argentine manager Héctor Veira. Bolivia was placed in group A along with hosts Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Their campaign started with a 2–2 draw against Egypt. Their next match was a 0–0 draw against Saudi Arabia. For their last match in the group, they had to play hosts Mexico, in which Bolivia lost 0–1 with a goal from Francisco Palencia. Bolivia finished third in the group with two draws and a loss, being eliminated from the tournament in the first stage.

In the 2015 Copa América in Chile, under Bolivian manager Mauricio Soria, Bolivia were placed 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, which they hosted. Bolivia were defeated by Peru 1–3 in the quarter-finals of the tournament, and Bolivia’s only goal of the game was a penalty in the last minutes of the match scored by Marcelo Moreno. In the next three Copa América editions, Bolivia performed poorly, losing all games in these tournaments.

In 2021, Bolivian Football Federation’s new President, Fernando Costa Sarmiento, lamented the deteriorating condition of football in Bolivia and vowed to rebuild the country’s football system. He accused the previous Presidents of mismanaging football as he aimed to reconstruct Bolivian football into a more professional manner. On 28 March 2023, Bolivia registered its first-ever away win against a World Cup team in the 21st century, a 2–1 over Saudi Arabia in Jeddah in a friendly.