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Coach Marcelo Bielsa looked apologetic after Uruguay’s disappointing World Cup campaign on Friday, saying he was entirely responsible for the team’s elimination and blaming himself for leaving nothing good in Uruguayan football during his time with the national team.
Uruguay lost 1–0 to Spain, leaving the tournament without a win. They had just won draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. It was the newcomer, Cape Verde, who exited Group H in second place behind Spain.
Bielsa, the Argentine coach whose contract with the Uruguayan soccer federation ran through the World Cup, has said in the past that his work with the national team would end after the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada. His voice had a tone of farewell Friday.
“What do I leave to Uruguayan football?” he said. “Nothing, because the contribution that a coach can make to a country’s football after three years of work never really comes to fruition if the results are not achieved. A fourth place in the qualifiers didn’t count for much, and a third place in the Copa América didn’t count either. And there’s obviously no need to spell that out after what happened now.
“A mandate that left nothing behind.”
The veteran coach took full responsibility for the team’s World Cup campaign, saying he should have been able to get the team to do more given the quality of his players. But he believes Uruguay should have had better luck given their performances.
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“I think we deserve to win seven points from the three matches, but we come away with only two points,” he said.
At 19th in the FIFA rankings, Uruguay are the highest-ranked team to be eliminated so far.
It was the second time Bielsa had coached a team that did not progress past the World Cup group stage, following Argentina’s debacle at the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. He helped Chile reach the round of 16 of the South African tournament in 2010 for their best World Cup result.
Associated Press reporting.
