GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — Coach Marcelo Bielsa looked sad after the game against Uruguay. world cup On Friday, the campaign ended in disappointment, but he said he was solely responsible for the team’s defeat and blamed himself for not bringing anything positive to Uruguayan football during his tenure with the national team.
Uruguay lost to Spain 0-1left the tournament without a win. The team moved on from draws with Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. Newcomers Cape Verde advanced from Group H in second place behind Spain.
Argentine coach Bielsa, whose contract with the Uruguayan Football Federation is valid until the duration of the World Cup, has said in the past that his work with the national team will end after the tournaments in the United States, Mexico and Canada. There was a parting tone in his voice Friday.
“What can we leave behind for Uruguayan football?” he said. “Nothing, because no matter what contribution a coach makes to the country’s football after working for three years, it will never stick if results are not achieved. Fourth place in qualifying was not that important, finishing third in the Copa America was not important either, and there is clearly no need to elaborate later on what happened now.”
“A tenure that left us with nothing.”
The veteran coach took full responsibility for the team’s campaign at the World Cup and said he could have given the team more given the quality of the players. However, given Uruguay’s performance, he felt they should have had better luck.
“I think we deserved seven points from three games, but we ended the game with only two points,” he said.
Uruguay are ranked 19th in the FIFA rankings, the highest of any team to have been eliminated.
This will be the second time that Bielsa has coached a team that failed to make it past the group stage at the World Cup, following Argentina’s disastrous defeat at the Japan-Korea tournament in 2002. At the 2010 South Africa tournament, he helped Chile advance to the last 16, achieving their best result at the World Cup.
___
See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here
