Rubén Darío Insúa, runner-up to Vasco in 1998, now leads Barracas Central | OneFootball

Vasco begin their Copa Sudamericana campaign against Barracas Central in Buenos Aires on Tuesday at 19:00 Brasília time. In the opposite dugout will be Rubén Darío Insúa, the coach who faced them in the 1998 Libertadores final with Barcelona de Guayaquil. He still sports the long hair from those days.

“I remember the squad. They had Donizete, Luizão, Juninho Pernambucano, Mauro Galvão... Vasco were very strong,” Insúa told Correio Braziliense in 2020.

A former Barcelona de Guayaquil player, he reached the Libertadores semi-finals in 1992, losing to eventual winners São Paulo. Six years later he returned as coach and met Vasco, who had Pedrinho and Felipe, now the club’s president and technical director respectively. After two victories, the Rio side lifted their first Libertadores title.

“Donizete and Luizão were impeccable in both games. They scored Vasco’s goals in Rio and in Guayaquil, and their finishing impressed me.”

Barcelona de Guayaquil was Insúa’s first job as a manager, and he has since worked across Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, with a standout spell at San Lorenzo, winning the Copa Sudamericana in 2002 and returning in 2023.

Insúa has led Barracas Central since 2024, the side reached the 2025 Clausula quarter-finals and, in the 2026 Apertura, have four wins, four draws and four defeats from 12, sitting ninth in Group 2.

Source: Globo.com