On Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 3:40:07 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
Seems like it's an almost done deal.
Given Bielsa's record with national teams, I think this might mean interesting
times for the international football landscape in South America. He built one
of the strongest versions of the Argentinian national teams we've seen in the
last 25 years or so, a team for whom WC'2002 came a year too late. Later with
Chile he did kickstart their golden generation, getting them into WC'2010 with
some good football and a number of names in the roster that would feature in their successes later that decade. And those later successful Chilean sides clearly carried Bielsismo's fingerprints.
What should one expect from his tenure with Uruguay? I think the intensity of
his style might be a very good match with La Celeste, a team that usually needs
little incentive to play their hearts out. If he can build or maintain a solid
defense, which is usually a watermark of Uruguayan football (but not necessarily
of Bielsa teams), then things should get really interesting there.
Bielsa will be Uruguay's second foreign coach ever, the first one having also
been an Argentinian, Daniel Passarella. I think their nationalities are where
the similarities end, though. Bielsa >> Passarella (as a coach) and, clearly,
Uruguay nowadays >> Uruguay 1999-2000.
Plus, the Argentinian sweep of managing jobs in South American national teams
goes on, with Bielsa joining Nestor Lorenzo (Colombia), Eduardo Berizzo (Chile),
Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Paraguay), Fernando Batista (Venezuela) and Gustavo
Costas (Bolivia), apart obviously from Lionel Scaloni with Argentina. Only Brasil,
Ecuador and Peru do not have an Argentinian manager - though the latter two had
Gustavo Alfaro and Ricardo Gareca up to last year!
We'll see what happens, but here's hoping this comes off and plays as expected.
In particular, Copa America 2024 might get really interesting in such scenario.
Best regards,
Lléo
Sounds worrying to me. The coach that couldn't get Argentina, with all the excellent players they had back then, past the 1st round of the World Cup in 2002? Then again, I don't know much about him other than that, so I might be judging him too harshly
for that.
Uruguay are beginning a decline right now I think. I'm not confident that giving him the job will help.
I didn't realize so many national teams had Argentinean coaches. That's interesting.
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