NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
Coach Marcelo Bielsa looked devastated after Uruguay’s World Cup campaign ended in disappointment on Friday, saying he was fully responsible for the team’s elimination and blaming himself for leaving nothing good for Uruguayan football during his time with the national team.
Uruguay lost 1-0 to Spain and left the tournament winless. It came after draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. It was newcomer Cape Verde who progressed from Group H in second place behind Spain.
Bielsa, the Argentina coach whose contract with Uruguay’s soccer federation ran through the World Cup, previously said his work with the national team would end after the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada. His voice had a farewell tone Friday.
“What should I leave for Uruguayan football?” he said. “Nothing, for any contribution a coach can make to football in a country after three years of work, is ever really established if results are not achieved. Fourth place in qualifying didn’t mean much, and third place in the Copa América didn’t either. And of course there’s no reason to say that after what happened now.
“A tenure that left nothing behind.”
The veteran coach took full responsibility for the team’s campaign at the World Cup, saying he should have been able to make the team do more given the quality of its players. But he believed Uruguay should have had better luck given its performances.
More WC
“I think we deserved to win seven points from the three games, but we only leave with 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 coached a team that failed to progress past the group stage at the World Cup, following Argentina’s debacle at the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. He helped Chile reach the last 16 of the tournament in South Africa in 2010 for his best World Cup result.
Report from the Associated Press.
