Bolivia’s national team relies on the high altitude miracle of El Alto

Eva Copa is proud of the arena. “Maradona has already come here to play,” the mayor of El Alto recently told the newspaper La Razón. And there are other stadiums, like the one in Peru, that are so high up.

This refers to the Estadio Daniel Alcides Carrión in Cerro de Pasco at 4,378 meters above sea level. But in El Alto, Bolivia, at an altitude of 4,085 meters, the World Cup qualifiers are even being played. More precisely, in the Estadio Municipal de El Alto, which is the official name of the arena. The stadium cost around $8 million and has been in operation since 2017. The stadium, popularly known as “El Titan”, is around 500 meters higher than the already extremely high stadium in the capital La Paz (3600 meters), where the national team played its home games in the past – and there in the Lionel Messi and Argentina once defeated 6-1 in thin air.

For a long time, Bolivia was a points supplier – now things are different

It has now been exactly 30 years since Bolivia last took part in a World Cup. The country has been one of the points suppliers in the South American World Cup qualifying eliminatories for the past three decades. But things are different in the current qualification. With nine points from eight games, Bolivia is only one point behind record world champions Brazil in the table. The traditional outsider is tied on points with Paraguay, who are in seventh place and thus occupy the place that would entitle them to a relegation game. The fans of “La Verde” can dream of taking part in the World Cup again for the first time.

On the one hand, this is because due to the expansion of the field of participants, up to seven teams from South America will be allowed to take part in the 2026 World Cup tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico. On the other hand, the Bolivians rely on a very special home advantage. The home games are now played in the high-altitude Municipal de El Alto stadium. And the current generation of Bolivian footballers is reminiscent of the golden generation of the 1994 World Cup year.

In the penultimate qualifying round, Bolivia managed an impressive 4-0 win against the up-and-coming Venezuelans at El Alto. On Thursday (10 p.m. CEST), the national team will host second-placed Colombia in the neighboring city of La Paz. “There is no magic or specific recipe, you look for variants that help to alleviate the effects of the altitude, we do everything in the medical and physical areas,” said Colombia’s Argentinian coach Néstor Lorenzo before the game.

Players who are not used to playing at this height are at risk of suffering from hypoxia, i.e. a reduced supply of oxygen to the body or individual parts of the body, explains Colombian doctor Carlos Alejandro Lopez Alban from the Center for Health Research in Cali in an interview with the NZZ . His advice: drink a lot. “The best strategy is good hydration, as it mitigates the effects of altitude in the first few hours.” Colombians could also benefit from one of their national drinks to offset the altitude advantage: coffee. The caffeine it contains helps the body stay alert and mobilize energy substrates a little better, says Lopez Alban. The Colombians’ nickname is “Cafeteros”.

Evo Morales fought to play at height

Football at altitude has always been a sports-political matter for Bolivia. Long-time President Evo Morales (2006-2019) had a dispute with the world football association (Fifa) over the question of whether and at what level football could be played. Morales argued that it is a human right for indigenous peoples in the Andes to play in their natural environment.

At the height of the dispute, Morales kicked the ball himself in Chacaltaya at 5,395 meters above sea level, surrounded by the lenses of national and international cameras. “Look, Mr. Blatter, you can play here without any problems,” Morales said to the then FIFA president directed at the cameras.