Uruguay's World Cup Exit Marred by Acrimony and Individual Errors

For the second World Cup in a row, Uruguay go home after the group​ stage. Last time it was on goals scored and with a sense of what might​ have been, but there was nothing to mitigate this campaign. The​ second-half performance against Saudi Arabia offered an idea of how​ they might have played, but this was a tournament characterised by ill​ feeling between coach and players, and undermined by individual errors.

It ended disgracefully with a terrible foul by Agustín Canobbio for​ which he was rightly sent off. Even his wild-eyed fury, though,​ signalled in two altercations with the referee in the minutes​ immediately before his inexcusable lunge on Pau Cubarsí, could not​ displace Fernando Muslera’s despairing glance behind him as the ball dribbled​ inside his right-hand post as the image of Uruguay’s World Cup.

Marcelo Bielsa leaves his job as manager amid acrimony and intense​ disappointment. He is 70 and, while it’s hard to imagine him leaving​ football, the likelihood is that that is the last we see of him at a​ World Cup. Like his first campaign, with Argentina in 2002, it ended​ in frustration, third place in the group and a first-phase exit. Leeds​ may turn out to have been his last positive experience in management.​ He has been a brilliant coach, one of the most influential of the past​ three or four decades, but the light fades for everybody eventually.

And yet Uruguay had played relatively well until Muslera’s mistake,​ restricting Spain even if they didn’t offer much threat of their own;​ too often they took the wrong option, or the vital pass was misplaced.​ But the real issue was the individual errors. Uruguay let in four​ goals in the tournament and all stemmed from basic mistakes. Muslera spilled a header against Saudi Arabia. The wall parted like a​ pair of curtains to allow Cape Verde to take the lead from a​ long-range free-kick, and then a misplaced pass when Muslera was​ inexplicably positioned 10 yards outside his box cost them an​ equaliser.

Muslera asked to be withdrawn at half-time here and was replaced by Sergio​ Rochet but the horse had long since bolted. Whatever wider issues​ there are, Bielsa’s decision to bring back Muslera, who had lost his​ place to Rochet before the 2022 World Cup and announced his retirement​ from international football in 2024, stands as a terrible mistake. Rochet had kept clean sheets in his three games before being dropped;​ there was no pressing need to remove him.

But there are wider issues. Part of the problem is that this is not a​ great Uruguay squad, not by the standards of the 1920s, the late-40s​ and early-50s, or even a decade ago. There is no Luis Suárez, no Diego​ Forlán, no Edinson Cavani – although it’s worth asking why none of the​ side that won the Under-20 World Cup three years ago has graduated to​ the senior team. That decline is never an easy thing to accept, even​ if on some rational level it is obvious – and so the tendency is to​ 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 group​ stage of the 2002 World Cup. His Chile may have won hearts and minds​ in 2010, but they went out in the last 16. His Uruguay couldn’t beat​ Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde and slunk away in a storm of spite and​ ill-discipline.

Four senior Uruguay players – Rochet, Manuel Ugarte, Rodrigo​ Bentancur and Federico Valverde –​ had requested a meeting with Bielsa​ before Friday’s game to protest about training, which they said was so​ ferocious it has led to injuries. They also suggested a change of​ approach against Spain, playing in a low block and looking to counter. That, of course, is utterly antithetical to Bielsa who not only denied​ their request but called a team meeting at which he addressed the​ players for 48 minutes, telling them that he intended to mirror Spain​ and explaining why he had brought injured but loyal players to the​ World Cup.

Bielsa also accused the squad of having tried to get rid of him when​ Suárez retired with a tirade against him almost two years ago, and​ again when he left the versatile and experienced Nahitan Nández, who​ plays in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Qadsiah, out of the World Cup​ squad. Suárez’s departure, notably, came after the Copa América in​ 2024; the month with Bielsa seemingly having strained his relations​ with everybody. Being cooped up with somebody so intense, so​ idiosyncratic, for a month cannot be easy; what can be tolerated at​ club level, when players can leave the training ground and decompress​ with friends and family, is perhaps harder to tolerate within the​ confines of a tournament camp.

After 40 minutes of an eyes-down harangue, several players walked out,​ despite the attempts of the defender José María Giménez to persuade​ them not to. The Barcelona defender Ronald Araújo, who did not play in​ either of the first two games, summed up the mood: “God willing we​ advance from the group,” he said, “but this can’t be endured any​ longer.”

To the relief of almost everybody, nobody will have to. Bielsa holds a​ major place in tactical history and, when the immediate memories fade,​ his legacy is secure. But for him and for Uruguay, this has been a​ dreadful tournament.