Uruguay - South American disappointment at World Cup 2026
Former champion win zero matches. Rank below Cape Verde. Only South American team out in group stage.
Uruguay hurt pride. Disappoint South American football. Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay reach round of 16. Uruguay only CONMEBOL team go home early.
Marcelo Bielsa team finish third Group H. Get 2 points. Poor result. Miss top 8 third-place teams.
Uruguay players sing national anthem before Uruguay - Spain match at Akron Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico, June 26, 2026. Photo: Reuters
Defeat shameful. Uruguay rank below Cape Verde. Cape Verde rookie write fairy tale. Smallest population country reach knockout stage.
Uruguay enter tournament with 4 stars on shirt. Symbolize two World Cups, two Olympic golds. Leave without win. Second straight group stage exit. Extend Qatar 2022 failure under Diego Alonso.
After lose Spain 0-1, Bielsa speak like man leaving. Contract expire. "Leave zero for Uruguay football. Three years work mean nothing without results. Legacy is nothing," 70-year-old coach say.
On pitch, Bielsa angry. "Hurry, ask question!" coach nicknamed El Loco (Madman) snap at reporter.
Coach Marcelo Bielsa in technical area during Uruguay - Spain match at Akron Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico, June 26, 2026. Photo: Reuters
Bielsa legacy huge. Influence many top coaches. But reality harsh. Uruguay World Cup run like three slaps to pride.
First, draw Saudi Arabia 1-1. Uruguay struggle, make 47 crosses. Next, draw Cape Verde 2-2 knock out ambition. Uruguay newspaper El Observador write: "Branch of hell, collapse of illusion, ephemeral empire." Finally, lose 0-1 to Spain.
Before key match, striker Luis Suarez say: "World Cup push to limit. Uruguayans used to struggle." Against Spain, Uruguay play best game. Team fight hard, stop La Roja stars. But Alex Baena score after error by goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.
Football team game. But Muslera hurt. Goalkeeper play 5 World Cups, hero of South Africa 2010. Disappoint. Mistake against Saudi Arabia. Poor play against Cape Verde. Helpless against Baena bounce shot.
Alex Baena score against goalkeeper Fernando Muslera in Uruguay - Spain match at Akron Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico, June 26, 2026. Photo: AP
Muslera ask for sub at half-time. Bielsa make shock change. Sub Fede Valverde minute 56. Real Madrid midfielder angry, cover mouth with shirt. Teammates calm him down.
Time run out. Football fail. Uruguay play rough, aggressive. Turn match into war. Leave World Cup with Agustin Canobbio red card, near fight with Spain staff.
The scene at the end of the match was perhaps not too surprising, as it was the inevitable consequence of the frustration built up throughout the match and the tournament by the Uruguayan players. The problem with this squad is the irreparable rift between Bielsa and most of the key players. The rosy picture from the days when the Argentine strategist first arrived in May 2023 is now nothing but ashes.
Agustin Canobbio (left) loses his temper in the final minutes of the Uruguay – Spain match at Akron Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico on June 26, 2026. Photo: Reuters
After Copa America 2024, Suarez retired from the national team, and among the many dark corners he exposed, there was the fact that the players once had to hold a meeting to beg Bielsa to at least say "buen día" (good morning) when he saw them. The star currently playing for Inter Miami painted a gloomy picture inside the national team. It was cold, unstable, a place where Bielsa rarely uttered a word to his players, and both players and coaching staff members no longer wanted to stay.
"What the national team is going through is truly heartbreaking," Suarez once said. He recalled trying to comfort Darwin Nunez when the younger striker burst into tears during halftime, only for Bielsa to bluntly tell him not to do so. Suarez also bitterly questioned why Matias Vecino retired from the national team at the age of 30. The answer was because he could no longer tolerate Bielsa. Suarez also spoke out to defend Canobbio after a heated confrontation with the coach born in 1955, asserting: "He has had to endure for too long."
The strange and bitter thing is that Bielsa seemed to agree with all of that. When Uruguay suffered a disastrous 1-5 defeat to the US last November, he described himself as "toxic" and admitted: "Those who have a relationship with me end up worse off. There are toxic people who only see mistakes, who are always demanding, always criticizing, never satisfied with anything, who only like to talk about work, who even bring a newspaper to dinner because they don't want to integrate with the rest. But do you know where that kind of behavior comes from? Fear. They don't enjoy winning at all; they are just much more afraid of losing."
Coach Marcelo Bielsa and Uruguay national team members in the technical area during the Uruguay – Spain match at Akron Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico on June 26, 2026. Photo: El Pais
In fact, Uruguay has not won a match since then. Therefore, the dressing room unrest right before the match against Spain was no longer too shocking. Because there is a bigger issue that needs to be dissected. Is Uruguay a victim of its own glorious history - a "Garra Charrua" (warrior spirit) identity, a culture, and a legendary story of defying all odds to win?
"Something crazy happened back then, we had Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan, and Edinson Cavani at the same time," former goalkeeper Gustavo Munua told Spanish newspaper AS when reminiscing about 2010. Uruguay has not won a single World Cup match without Suarez since 1990.
Yet before the 2026 World Cup, looking at the current squad, the president of the country's football association, Ignacio Alonso, still confidently declared that Uruguay was a team capable of reaching the quarterfinals. The latest golden generation of this football nation has not had a worthy succession. After reaching the semifinals in South Africa 2010, the round of 16 in Brazil 2014, and the quarterfinals in Russia 2018, now, passing the group stage has become a luxury limit for Uruguay.
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