Julio Vaccari was the interim manager of Vélez from March to May this year. (Photo: Alejandro Pagni / AFP)
The early departure of Sebastián Beccacece left Defense and Justice with the need to find a coach nine dates from the end of a season in which he is fighting for a place in the next edition of the Copa Sudamericana. The chosen one to occupy the bank is Julio Vaccari, who until Tuesday was the head of the Vélez Reserve.
The choice may have surprised more than one, but it is in line with a method on which Florencio Varela’s club has opted several times in the last decade: to resort to coaches with little or no experience in the First Division. So Ariel Holan, Jorge Almirón, Juan Pablo Vojvoda or Pablo De Muner arrived. And now it’s up to Vaccari.
The 42-year-old from Santa Fe had a brief stint as a coach for Vélez’s top squad this year: he took over on 24 March, following the resignation of Mauricio Pellegrino, and returned to the post of reserve driver on 28 May. when the Uruguayan Alexander Medina took over. In that period he leads the team in 13 games (5 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses) e reached qualification for the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores.
Vaccari, who graduated in Health and Physical Education from Universidad del Salvador in 2005, took his first steps as a coach at Club Atlético Paz and Círculo Social y Deportivo General Belgrano, both in his province, but made the big leap when he was linked to Marcelo Bielsa: he was a video analyst of his technical staff during his experiences at Athletic Club de Bilbao (2011-2013) and Olympique de Marseille (2014-2015).
He later joined the Gabriel Heinze project, with whom he worked on Godoy Cruz (2015) and Argentinos Juniors (2016-2017) before moving to Vélez. He was assistant to Gringo during the 26 months of work at the Liniers club and left with him in March 2020, but returned, already as the Reserve’s coach, in December of the same year.
At the end of May, after Vélez announced the hiring of Medina and the consequent end of Vaccari’s internship, there was a small verbal short circuit with the management of the Loud that the technician immediately took care of repaying. I am very happy in the Reserve and grateful to the people who manage football.. In Vélez’s inferiors they work very well in all sectors, it is the place where they work best, “he said later. Now he will drive again in a first-class team.
If Defense and Justice had to make this move at this point in the season, it was because woodcockwho in June had promised to work in the club until the end of the campaign, decided to leave early: On Sunday he coached the team for the last time in the 1-0 defeat to Talleres at Córdoba’s Mario Alberto Kempes. His new destination would be Santos in Brazil.
For now, and at times when the calendar tightens, the Falcon On Thursday he will have to take the field again to face Argentinos Juniors at Norberto Tomaghello for the 19th round of the Professional League. In that meeting, the coaches will be Nicolás Diez and Guillermo Marino.
After this brief interregnum, Vaccari, whose the goal in the next 40 days will be to qualify the team for the next edition of the Copa Sudamericana, the tournament he won in January 2021 under the command of Hernán Crespo. The defense is in 11th place in the annual standings, with 44 points, just one unit from the last place to grant a ticket and which currently occupies Atlético Tucumán.
Source: Clarin
