For the second World Cup in a row, Uruguay go home after the groupâ stage. Last time it was on goals scored and with a sense of what mightâ have been, but there was nothing to mitigate this campaign. Theâ second-half performance against Saudi Arabia offered an idea of howâ they might have played, but this was a tournament characterised by illâ feeling between coach and players, and undermined by individual errors.
It ended disgracefully with a terrible foul by AgustĂn Canobbio forâ which he was rightly sent off. Even his wild-eyed fury, though,â signalled in two altercations with the referee in the minutesâ immediately before his inexcusable lunge on Pau CubarsĂ, could notâ displace Fernando Musleraâs despairing glance behind him as the ball dribbledâ inside his right-hand post as the image of Uruguayâs World Cup.
Marcelo Bielsa leaves his job as manager amid acrimony and intenseâ disappointment. He is 70 and, while itâs hard to imagine him leavingâ football, the likelihood is that that is the last we see of him at aâ World Cup. Like his first campaign, with Argentina in 2002, it endedâ in frustration, third place in the group and a first-phase exit. Leedsâ may turn out to have been his last positive experience in management.â He has been a brilliant coach, one of the most influential of the pastâ three or four decades, but the light fades for everybody eventually.
And yet Uruguay had played relatively well until Musleraâs mistake,â restricting Spain even if they didnât offer much threat of their own;â too often they took the wrong option, or the vital pass was misplaced.â But the real issue was the individual errors. Uruguay let in fourâ goals in the tournament and all stemmed from basic mistakes.â Muslera spilled a header against Saudi Arabia. The wall parted like aâ pair of curtains to allow Cape Verde to take the lead from aâ long-range free-kick, and then a misplaced pass when Muslera wasâ inexplicably positioned 10 yards outside his box cost them anâ equaliser.
Muslera asked to be withdrawn at half-time here and was replaced by Sergioâ Rochet but the horse had long since bolted. Whatever wider issuesâ there are, Bielsaâs decision to bring back Muslera, who had lost hisâ place to Rochet before the 2022 World Cup and announced his retirementâ from international football in 2024, stands as a terrible mistake.â Rochet had kept clean sheets in his three games before being dropped;â there was no pressing need to remove him.
But there are wider issues. Part of the problem is that this is not aâ great Uruguay squad, not by the standards of the 1920s, the late-40sâ and early-50s, or even a decade ago. There is no Luis SuĂĄrez, no Diegoâ ForlĂĄn, no Edinson Cavani â although itâs worth asking why none of theâ side that won the Under-20 World Cup three years ago has graduated toâ the senior team. That decline is never an easy thing to accept, evenâ if on some rational level it is obvious â and so the tendency is toâ scapegoat the manager. And Bielsa has made it easy to scapegoat him.
His record at World Cups is poor. His Argentina went out in the groupâ stage of the 2002 World Cup. His Chile may have won hearts and mindsâ in 2010, but they went out in the last 16. His Uruguay couldnât beatâ Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde and slunk away in a storm of spite andâ ill-discipline.
Four senior Uruguay players â Rochet, Manuel Ugarte, Rodrigoâ Bentancur and Federico Valverde ââ had requested a meeting with Bielsaâ before Fridayâs game to protest about training, which they said was soâ ferocious it has led to injuries. They also suggested a change ofâ approach against Spain, playing in a low block and looking to counter.â That, of course, is utterly antithetical to Bielsa who not only deniedâ their request but called a team meeting at which he addressed theâ players for 48 minutes, telling them that he intended to mirror Spainâ and explaining why he had brought injured but loyal players to theâ World Cup.
Bielsa also accused the squad of having tried to get rid of him whenâ SuĂĄrez retired with a tirade against him almost two years ago, andâ again when he left the versatile and experienced Nahitan NĂĄndez, whoâ plays in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Qadsiah, out of the World Cupâ squad. SuĂĄrezâs departure, notably, came after the Copa AmĂ©rica inâ 2024; the month with Bielsa seemingly having strained his relationsâ with everybody. Being cooped up with somebody so intense, soâ idiosyncratic, for a month cannot be easy; what can be tolerated atâ club level, when players can leave the training ground and decompressâ with friends and family, is perhaps harder to tolerate within theâ confines of a tournament camp.
After 40 minutes of an eyes-down harangue, several players walked out,â despite the attempts of the defender JosĂ© MarĂa GimĂ©nez to persuadeâ them not to. The Barcelona defender Ronald AraĂșjo, who did not play inâ either of the first two games, summed up the mood: âGod willing weâ advance from the group,â he said, âbut this canât be endured anyâ longer.â
To the relief of almost everybody, nobody will have to. Bielsa holds aâ major place in tactical history and, when the immediate memories fade,â his legacy is secure. But for him and for Uruguay, this has been aâ dreadful tournament.
It ended disgracefully with a terrible foul by AgustĂn Canobbio forâ which he was rightly sent off. Even his wild-eyed fury, though,â signalled in two altercations with the referee in the minutesâ immediately before his inexcusable lunge on Pau CubarsĂ, could notâ displace Fernando Musleraâs despairing glance behind him as the ball dribbledâ inside his right-hand post as the image of Uruguayâs World Cup.
Marcelo Bielsa leaves his job as manager amid acrimony and intenseâ disappointment. He is 70 and, while itâs hard to imagine him leavingâ football, the likelihood is that that is the last we see of him at aâ World Cup. Like his first campaign, with Argentina in 2002, it endedâ in frustration, third place in the group and a first-phase exit. Leedsâ may turn out to have been his last positive experience in management.â He has been a brilliant coach, one of the most influential of the pastâ three or four decades, but the light fades for everybody eventually.
And yet Uruguay had played relatively well until Musleraâs mistake,â restricting Spain even if they didnât offer much threat of their own;â too often they took the wrong option, or the vital pass was misplaced.â But the real issue was the individual errors. Uruguay let in fourâ goals in the tournament and all stemmed from basic mistakes.â Muslera spilled a header against Saudi Arabia. The wall parted like aâ pair of curtains to allow Cape Verde to take the lead from aâ long-range free-kick, and then a misplaced pass when Muslera wasâ inexplicably positioned 10 yards outside his box cost them anâ equaliser.
Muslera asked to be withdrawn at half-time here and was replaced by Sergioâ Rochet but the horse had long since bolted. Whatever wider issuesâ there are, Bielsaâs decision to bring back Muslera, who had lost hisâ place to Rochet before the 2022 World Cup and announced his retirementâ from international football in 2024, stands as a terrible mistake.â Rochet had kept clean sheets in his three games before being dropped;â there was no pressing need to remove him.
But there are wider issues. Part of the problem is that this is not aâ great Uruguay squad, not by the standards of the 1920s, the late-40sâ and early-50s, or even a decade ago. There is no Luis SuĂĄrez, no Diegoâ ForlĂĄn, no Edinson Cavani â although itâs worth asking why none of theâ side that won the Under-20 World Cup three years ago has graduated toâ the senior team. That decline is never an easy thing to accept, evenâ if on some rational level it is obvious â and so the tendency is toâ scapegoat the manager. And Bielsa has made it easy to scapegoat him.
His record at World Cups is poor. His Argentina went out in the groupâ stage of the 2002 World Cup. His Chile may have won hearts and mindsâ in 2010, but they went out in the last 16. His Uruguay couldnât beatâ Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde and slunk away in a storm of spite andâ ill-discipline.
Four senior Uruguay players â Rochet, Manuel Ugarte, Rodrigoâ Bentancur and Federico Valverde ââ had requested a meeting with Bielsaâ before Fridayâs game to protest about training, which they said was soâ ferocious it has led to injuries. They also suggested a change ofâ approach against Spain, playing in a low block and looking to counter.â That, of course, is utterly antithetical to Bielsa who not only deniedâ their request but called a team meeting at which he addressed theâ players for 48 minutes, telling them that he intended to mirror Spainâ and explaining why he had brought injured but loyal players to theâ World Cup.
Bielsa also accused the squad of having tried to get rid of him whenâ SuĂĄrez retired with a tirade against him almost two years ago, andâ again when he left the versatile and experienced Nahitan NĂĄndez, whoâ plays in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Qadsiah, out of the World Cupâ squad. SuĂĄrezâs departure, notably, came after the Copa AmĂ©rica inâ 2024; the month with Bielsa seemingly having strained his relationsâ with everybody. Being cooped up with somebody so intense, soâ idiosyncratic, for a month cannot be easy; what can be tolerated atâ club level, when players can leave the training ground and decompressâ with friends and family, is perhaps harder to tolerate within theâ confines of a tournament camp.
After 40 minutes of an eyes-down harangue, several players walked out,â despite the attempts of the defender JosĂ© MarĂa GimĂ©nez to persuadeâ them not to. The Barcelona defender Ronald AraĂșjo, who did not play inâ either of the first two games, summed up the mood: âGod willing weâ advance from the group,â he said, âbut this canât be endured anyâ longer.â
To the relief of almost everybody, nobody will have to. Bielsa holds aâ major place in tactical history and, when the immediate memories fade,â his legacy is secure. But for him and for Uruguay, this has been aâ dreadful tournament.
