Tim Vickery, South America correspondent
There was no want for Marcelo Bielsa's trademark bucket on the touchline when his Uruguay aspect met Peru within the South American Beneath-23 Championships on Tuesday. The well-known coach was not taking his attribute sequence of tiny steps up and down the aspect of the pitch, head bowed as if trying to find a misplaced wedding ceremony ring. Bielsa was not current to observe his staff rating a splurge of objectives both aspect of half-time to win 3-0. He was suspended after choosing up yellow playing cards in Uruguay's earlier two video games, defeats to Paraguay and Chile that left his males on the verge of elimination from the event.
Bielsa overdid the protests as he howled in dismay throughout these earlier two defeats. He knew there was a lot at stake. True, that is solely the South American Beneath-23 Championships, however it's the gateway to the Olympic Video games and there are solely two slots obtainable. Uruguay are actually out of the operating. The convincing win over Peru left hopes flickering of a rescue, however for Uruguay to have any probability of staying alive within the competitors, Bielsa's native Argentina couldn't beat Chile within the subsequent recreation. Argentina received 5-0, and their assembly with Uruguay on Friday is now meaningless, and particularly melancholic for Bielsa and for Uruguay.
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The Albiceleste are coached by Javier Mascherano, who was a part of the staff 20 years in the past when Argentina received the gold medal on the Athens Video games. The successful coach was Bielsa, and that triumph stays his solely worldwide title.
And if Olympic soccer has loads of significance for Bielsa, it means far more to his present employers. The Uruguay nationwide staff are nonetheless known as La Celeste Olímpica, the Olympic Sky Blues, and so they haven't taken half within the event since 1928. Making it to the Paris Video games was particularly vital to them.
It was precisely a 100 years in the past in Paris when an unheralded Uruguay aspect arrived for the Olympic event and altered the trendy recreation. They cruised to the gold medal in such exhilarating model that set off a fever for the game and made the World Cup an inevitability. 4 years later, they defended their title in Amsterdam. These are Uruguay's solely gold medals in Olympic historical past, and the nation offers them the identical weight as their World Cup triumphs of 1930 and 1950 -- the explanation that the senior nationwide staff performs with 4 stars on the shirt.
This under-23 staff have a particular shirt commemorating the feat of a century in the past. The juxtaposition of "Paris" and "24" goes straight to the centre of the Uruguayan soul. The Sky Blues merely needed to be there this summer season. When Bielsa took the Uruguay job he made a degree of taking cost of this staff as effectively. A lot of them received final 12 months's Beneath-20 World Cup and the excessive hopes appeared justified, particularly when the staff raced right into a 2-0 lead towards Paraguay with some 10 minutes on the clock. So what went mistaken?
The duty was in all probability tougher than it appeared. Ecuador discovered this out within the earlier model of this event, 4 years in the past. They took a tremendous staff from the earlier 12 months's under-20 competitions -- they got here third within the World Cup and have been South America champions -- and have been eradicated with out scoring a single purpose. A aspect fashioned basically of under-21 gamers is giving freely vital years in an under-23 competitors -- particularly when a number of the older names fail to step up.
Senior worldwide winger Cristian Olivera -- the kind of participant that Bielsa values a lot -- was not allowed to step up. He was pulled out by his MLS membership LAFC on the eve of the competitors. Orlando Metropolis SC central midfielder César Araujo was a large disappointment within the first two video games, with out the precision in his passing of Fabricio Diaz, final 12 months's under-20 captain who has subsequently joined Qatari membership Al Gharafa. One other of the older names, playmaker Tiago Palacios, missed a number of possibilities that will have put the sport to mattress when Uruguay have been forward and flying towards Paraguay.
A part of the blame, although, is clearly Bielsa's. He has by no means been the best defensive organiser, and certainly blundered by leaving out centre-back Sebastian Boselli, maybe the excellent participant in Uruguay's under-20 triumphs, for the opening recreation towards Paraguay. Seemingly wanting a left foot to play out from defence, Bielsa improvised midfielder Santiago Homenchenko as a centre-back. It was not successful, and Homenchenko was uncovered towards a Paraguay aspect working with a dogged fury inside their limitations. What at one stage appeared like a cushty win become a 4-3 defeat.
The coach should additionally bear some duty for the failure of his aspect to take care of scoreboard strain. As Paraguay fought again exhausting, Uruguay couldn't regain their early fluency. After which, towards a cautious Chile, Bielsa's males attacked with out conviction and have been picked off on the break in a 1-0 defeat. They appeared unable to get behind the Chileans' again three, and all of Bielsa's substitutions appeared to depart his staff extra uncovered with out including further penetration. The yellow playing cards he picked up for protesting have been as a lot of something gestures of impotent frustration at his failure to vary the course of the matches.
Bielsa's work with the senior aspect has acquired off to a powerful begin, with a rebuilt younger staff stringing collectively tremendous wins towards Brazil and Argentina. However World Cup qualification doesn't resume till September. Earlier than then the nation was wanting ahead to cheering on its staff and celebrating its personal previous within the Paris Olympics. However now Uruguay should watch sadly from the sidelines as Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and both Ecuador or Venezuela battle for the appropriate to symbolize South America this summer season.
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