{"id":7533,"date":"2026-06-27T16:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T16:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/toxic-bielsa-leaves-nothing-good-behind-as-uruguay-suffer-world-cup-shock\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T16:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T16:35:23","slug":"toxic-bielsa-leaves-nothing-good-behind-as-uruguay-suffer-world-cup-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/toxic-bielsa-leaves-nothing-good-behind-as-uruguay-suffer-world-cup-shock\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic Bielsa leaves \u2018nothing good\u2019 behind as Uruguay suffer World Cup shock"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/fifa-world-cup-2026\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"22.5\" width=\"222.75\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Post-Label-Image-Option-1-1780213226.png?fit=396%2C40&#038;quality=80\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"World Cup 2026 post label\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Uruguay\u2019s out-going Argentinean coach Marcelo Bielsa has previously described himself as a \u2018toxic perfectionist\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>By <\/span>The Associated Press and Al Jazeera staff<\/p>\n<p> and <\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa has taken full responsibility for his team\u2019s elimination from World Cup 2026 and blamed himself for leaving \u2018nothing good\u2019 for Uruguayan football during his stint with the national team.<\/p>\n<p>The South Americans lost 1-0 to group-winning Spain to leave the tournament without a victory. The exit came off the back of draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde \u2013 the latter, newcomers to the World Cup <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/27\/cape-verde-break-record-as-smallest-nation-to-reach-world-cup-knockouts\">advanced from Group H<\/a> in second -place.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/27\/colombia-portugal-fifa-world-cup-2026-schedule-ronaldo-prediction\">Can Ronaldo fire Portugal to top of Group K? A clash with Colombia awaits<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/27\/joy-disappointment-protests-a-view-from-egypt-iran-world-cup-tie\">Joy, disappointment, protests: A view from Egypt-Iran World Cup tie<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/6\/27\/fifa-world-cup-2026-saturday-schedule-round-of-32-standings-predictions\">FIFA World Cup Day 17: Six games as teams fight for the Round of 32<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/8\/olympic-waterpolo-coach-players-resign-over-belittling-and-lack-of-respect\">Olympic water polo resignations cite lack of respect, belittling behaviour<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>At 19th in the FIFA rankings, Uruguay is the highest-ranked team to be eliminated so far.<\/p>\n<p>Bielsa, the Argentine coach whose contract with Uruguay\u2019s Football Association was valid through the World Cup, said in the past that his work with the national team would end after the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old, who previously managed in the English Premier League with Leeds United, admitted in a media conference in November\u00a0 \u2013 after the 5-1 defeat by USA \u2013 that he was \u201ctoxic\u201d, associating it with his drive for perfection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve received a lot of complaints about my behaviour,\u201d he conceded, amid rumours of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/28\/former-chelsea-boss-biesla-facing-world-cup-mutiny-with-uruguay\">a pre-tournament mutiny<\/a> by the players.<\/p>\n<p>Bielsa\u2019s reflection had a similar tone following the end of the World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do I leave for Uruguayan football?\u201d he said. \u201cNothing, because any contribution that a coach might make to football in a country after three years of work never truly takes hold if results aren\u2019t achieved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFourth place in the qualifiers didn\u2019t count for much and a third-place finish in the Copa America didn\u2019t either. And there is obviously no need to spell it out after what happened now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA tenure that left nothing behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The veteran coach took full responsibility for the World Cup campaign, saying he should have been able to get the team to do more considering the quality of its players. But he did feel that Uruguay should have had better luck considering the performances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we deserved to win seven points from the three matches, but we leave with only two points,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>It was the second time Bielsa coached a team that did not advance past the group stage at the World Cup, following Argentina\u2019s debacle in the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. He helped Chile reach the round of 16 of the tournament in South Africa in 2010 for his best World Cup result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uruguay\u2019s out-going Argentinean coach Marcelo Bielsa has previously described himself as a \u2018toxic perfectionist\u2019. By The Associated Press and Al Jazeera staff and The Associated Press Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa has taken full responsibility for his team\u2019s elimination from World Cup 2026 and blamed himself for leaving \u2018nothing good\u2019 for Uruguayan football during his stint &#8230; <a title=\"Toxic Bielsa leaves \u2018nothing good\u2019 behind as Uruguay suffer World Cup shock\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/toxic-bielsa-leaves-nothing-good-behind-as-uruguay-suffer-world-cup-shock\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Toxic Bielsa leaves \u2018nothing good\u2019 behind as Uruguay suffer World Cup shock\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}