La Roja continued its good performance under Jorge Sampaoli Saturday night, giving fans much to celebrate.

The Chilean national team registered another solid win under new head coach Jorge Sampaoli in a friendly against Haiti Saturday night.

Carlos Muñoz celebrates after opening the scoring against Haiti. Photo courtesy of Selección Chilena/Facebook

La Roja’s 3-0 win at the Estadio Collao in Concepción follows another home victory against Senegal earlier this week. Though both games were friendlies, Chile has nonetheless traded a five-game losing streak for a two-game winning streak under Sampaoli’s watch.

After the match, Sampaoli praised his team’s performance in both games.

“We consistently established ourselves as major players,” he said. “We were by far the better team in both games and we dominated even more in this one (against Haiti).”

The game started with both teams creating shots on goal, but failing to capitalize on any of them.  Haiti controlled the field at the onset, registering intent only two minutes into the match. After about 15 minutes in, however, Chile was looking much more aggressive, and although both teams went into halftime scoreless, momentum was clearly with the home team.

It was not until the 48th minute that La Roja was able to turn the momentum into goals, as Carlos Muñoz, who had been looking to score all night, finally slipped one past Haitian goalkeeper Frandy Montrevil.  Muñoz, Colo Colo’s top scorer last season, put the point on the board after catching a deflected ball from the Haitian goalkeeper.

Chile kept up the pressure, and although Haiti came close to an equalizer in the 56th minute through midfielder Pascal Millien, the attempt was beautifully stopped by Johnny Herrera, and was promptly answered by José Pedro Fuenzalida, whose left-footed shot doubled Chile’s lead.

The final goal came late in the 76th minute through Fuenzalida’s replacement, Patricio Rubio, who hammered the last nail in Haiti’s coffin after a well-placed cross.

Chile will look to continue this winning streak as it faces Peru and Uruguay in World Cup qualifiers on March 22 and 26.  Currently sixth in the standings, Chile will need to climb at least one space if it hopes to make it to Brazil in 2014.

By David Pedigo (pedigo@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2013 – The Santiago Times