June 26 (Reuters) – \u2060Uruguay’s World Cup ended on Friday as Marcelo Bielsa’s side crashed out \u2060without a win, becoming the only CONMEBOL team not to reach \u200cthe knockout rounds in a tournament format built to give heavyweights little excuse for failing to advance.<\/p>\n
Twice world champions Uruguay were eliminated after a 1-0 defeat by Spain, having previously drawn with Saudi \u200bArabia and World Cup debutants Cape Verde in Group \u2060H.<\/p>\n
In an expanded 48-team tournament \u2060where 32 nations advance, Uruguay’s exit ranks as one of the most glaring failures.<\/p>\n
The \u2060disappointment \u200cwas heightened by the talent at Bielsa’s disposal. Federico Valverde, Rodrigo Bentancur, Manuel Ugarte and Darwin Nunez formed the core of a team expected \u2060to comfortably reach the knockout stage after a solid qualifying \u200bcampaign and third-place finish \u200cat the 2024 Copa America.<\/p>\n
Instead, Uruguay looked disjointed throughout the group stage, \u2060unable to turn \u200bpossession and pressure into control or goals. Their campaign extended a winless run dating back to October, when they beat Uzbekistan in a friendly, and was a second straight \u2060World Cup in which they failed to progress.<\/p>\n
The disappointment \u200balso came against a backdrop of growing tension around Argentine Bielsa’s methods.<\/p>\n
Senior figures, including Uruguay’s all-time record scorer Luis Suarez, questioned aspects of his management, particularly the intensity \u2060of training and direction of the team.<\/p>\n
Local media reported that captains Valverde, Bentancur, Ugarte and goalkeeper Sergio Rochet met Bielsa before the Spain match to raise concerns over the physical demands of training and his tactical approach.<\/p>\n
The reports said the exchange \u200bbecame tense, with players concerned the workload had left \u2060them fatigued during matches.<\/p>\n
Bielsa had already hinted before the tournament that his tenure could \u200bend after the tournament, saying in May his “job \u200cends with the World Cup.”<\/p>\n
Following a winless \u200bexit marked by poor performances and internal friction, his future appears increasingly uncertain.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, Editing by Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 26 (Reuters) – \u2060Uruguay’s World Cup ended on Friday as Marcelo Bielsa’s side crashed out \u2060without a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,13201,596,85,21418],"class_list":["post-763109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}