Uruguay exits World Cup amid turmoil and poor performance

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The head coach is an easy scapegoat but, while his legacy is secure, this has been a dire tournament for him and his side 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. Continue reading...

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Head coach to depart after Uruguay’s early exit Bielsa: ‘I am responsible for all the disappointment’ Marcelo Bielsa said that he had left nothing to Uruguayan football after overseeing their elimination from the World Cup. Uruguay failed to win a game in a group that included Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia and their exit was confirmed with a 1-0 defeat against Spain in Guadalajara during which 40-year-old goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was withdrawn at half-time after his error handed Spain the only goal of the game. The 70-year-old, who took over in 2023 and whose relationship with the players was poor, to the point of describing himself as “toxic”, will not continue in the post. Continue reading...