Looking impassively as Uruguay unravelled, Marcelo Bielsa sat on the drinks box when Federico Valverde came off against Spain. Coach and captain ignoring each other was one of the most enduring memories of a World Cup that has seen Germany exit, Paraguay exult, Erling Haaland do Erling Haaland things, England rely on Harry Kane’s poaching skills, France looking majestic and Brazil journeying from miserable to memorable in 45 minutes against Japan.
“Shouldn’t have happened”
At 19th in the FIFA rankings, twice world champions Uruguay were the highest ranked team to be eliminated from the group phase. It shouldn’t have happened, Bielsa said at a press conference on Tuesday. Armed with a dossier full of data, he said Uruguay ran more than all their opponents and there was really no explanation as to why they finished on two points and not seven in Group H. Resigning his post, Bielsa also said no one in Uruguay was interested in what he was doing.
That’s some shift from how it began. Uruguay had blazed away at the start of the World Cup qualifiers beating Brazil and Argentina. From the physical, destructive style that combined with individual talent to make Uruguay feared, if not always formidable, opponents, Bielsa had changed them into a team so full of energy, intent and pressing that even at Boca Juniors’s home, it would prove too much for Argentina. In 2024, after beating Brazil with a player short, Uruguay finished third in the Copa.
A quarter-final berth was what the federation president expected in the World Cup. By the time the tournament came around, things had started fraying and not just at the edges. An explosive Luis Suarez interview after Copa where he said players will reach a limit and then explode was endorsed by Valverde. Before that, Bielsa’s Uruguay had not lost 16 of their last 19 matches, winning 11. After Suarez spoke, the count was: five wins, seven draws and five defeats.
Before the match against Spain, media reports emerged of senior Uruguay players, their skipper among them, asking Bielsa to change how the team play. The players wanted a low block, counter-attacking style. Bielsa heard them and then explained in detail why he wouldn’t do that. Among the players who were anonymous against Spain was Valverde.
Polarising opinion
There were also reports that players found Bielsa’s training too arduous and that it was leading to injuries. Mirroring Uruguay was how it began and ended at Leeds United. There were frank conversations with players at Leeds United as well.
Bielsa should never have recalled Suarez because he was too old for his kind of football is one school of thought. His lack of inter-personal skills is why Uruguay ended this way is another. Both can be true.
Because Bielsa polarises opinion. He is a guru Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, whose recommendation helped Bielsa get a work permit in England, and Diego Simeone can never have enough of. We were Championship players when he arrived at Leeds, he turned us into Premier League players, Luke Ayling has said. He improved me after coming into my life when I was 22-23, said Ander Herrera. Even in this squad, Sebastian Caceras backed Bielsa. At the other end were Suarez and Diego Lugano who said things had become toxic in the changing room.
Guardiola terms him a football genius whose passion has not dimmed at 70. Bielsa is known for his attention to detail; ahead of a pre-season friendly, he had sought footage of the last three games of Leeds’s opponent. There have been reports that his staff had an eight-page document on the third goalie of a team at the bottom of The Championship. Accused of spying on opponents, Bielsa responded with a 70-minute press conference where he said he and his staff had analysed each game his opponents had played in the season prior. Information overload was among Uruguay players’ gripes, according to media reports.
Under Bielsa, Leeds blitzed back into the Premier League, Athletic Bilbao played a final in Europe, Newell’s Old Boys were champions in Argentina and made the Copa Libertadores final. Equally, on his watch, a talented Argentina side exited from the group stage of the 2002 World Cup. And now this: a campaign where a goalkeeper Bielsa brought back let the team down.
With Pascal Struijk leaving, the Bielsa era has officially ended at Leeds. Not everybody gets a fairytale ending but it would be sad if this is indeed his last World Cup.
Felt like a low blow
Rage would replace regret at how Iran were treated. “We always complain about these things but no one helps us, no one,” said Iran skipper Mehdi Taremi after the draw against Egypt, a result made worse by his penalty miss and a goal chalked off by VAR. “If they want us to be out, then OK; let’s get out. But that’s not fair.”
From not being allowed recovery sessions in USA to support staff and fans denied visas, the World Cup was unfair to Iran who exited undefeated and only after Austria pulled off a late equaliser. But a US official saying he was happy about Iran’s ouster felt like a particularly low blow.
