Gustavo Alfaro, the Paraguay coach who draws inspiration from Einstein, Aristotle...: “We succeed and fail less than we think”

Paraguay is back in the World Cup for the first time since 2010, and there is one man who should be given a large chunk of the credit for their return to soccer’s biggest tournament. Gustavo Alfaro is patrolling the Paraguay touchline these days, and he is part manager, part philosopher and full time hero for a couple of South American sides.

Alfaro brings Paraguay back to promise land

In the Qatar four years ago, it was Alfaro taking Ecuador to the World Cup after missing the previous edition. They beat the hosts, Qatar in the first match of the campaign before drawing to the Netherlands and losing to Senegal in the final match of group stages. Alfaro and his side failed to make the knockout rounds, but the fact that Ecuador was back in the World Cup was a feat in itself.

Now Alfaro has moved on to his newest project. After a short stint with Costa Rica, he was lured to Paraguay in hopes that he would do the same thing as coach of the Albirroja as he did with Ecuador. Paraguay qualified for the World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Ecuador, and now set their sights on getting past the group stages for the fourth time in the country’s history.

The style of play he injects into his sides is unique, just like his way of thinking and speaking when the cameras are on him. He is a student of game, but he is also a student of science, of literature, of film and of philosophy. We are sure to hear plenty from him over the next few weeks, especially considering they have a date with the USMNT to open their campaign, but let’s look back at some of his best sound clips from press conferences past.

Alfaro’s best sound bites

When he was in charge of the Costa Rica side for a short spell between his gigs with Ecuador and Brazil, the Ticos face mighty Brazil. They drew against Brazil, and dropped one of the better one liners in recent memory. “We were Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. The only one who didn’t know he was dead was him. They gave us up for dead before the movie even started,” he said after the 0-0 draw.

When the Argentinian was named manager of Boca Juniors, he was famously quoted saying, “Boca doesn’t have purgatory. Here it’s heaven or hell.” Another one of his famous quotes goes like this, “The train leaves everyday, sometimes you have to have the will to get on the train.”

“We succeed and fail less than we think,” is another one of the phrases that Alfaro has on his long list of memorable clips after one of his more than 900 matches. Maybe my favorite of his quotes is, “We played with passion, but we didn’t think with passion.” He will be hoping his Paraguay team both play and think with passion against the US on the 12th of June when they kick off their World Cup campaigns. Alfaro will have a chance to get Paraguay back to the knockout stages for the first time since 2010 when they had a historic run to the quarterfinals.

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