Uruguay’s coach, Marcelo Bielsa, has taken responsibility for his team’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Colombia in the Copa America semifinals. Despite believing Uruguay possessed superior talent, Bielsa admitted his team failed to capitalize on their numerical advantage after a Colombian player was sent off.
In a post-match press conference, Bielsa stated, “Uruguay was in a clear condition to win this match if you assess the individual talent in each squad. I manage the team that, in my opinion, had the stronger individual talent vis-à-vis the opponent, and we weren’t able to make the difference that I thought we were going to make if you compared both formations.”
He continued, “I am personally liable for not achieving the result, despite having these players that were capable of being superior than the opponent. We were not able to seize our extra man advantage, and when a team wins with less individual talent, logically, the manager that is coaching the weaker team shows that he is superior than the coach that had the best players.”
Uruguay had several opportunities to score in the first half, but their momentum faltered after Colombia’s Daniel Munoz was red-carded just before halftime. Bielsa lamented the stop-and-start nature of the second half, claiming it prevented his team from creating more scoring chances.
“The first half, even if we didn’t dominate possession, it was very even, and we should have made the difference. With one man down in the second half for Colombia, the match was completely interrupted,” Bielsa said. “It was constantly start and stop. We should have created more chances and caused damage to the opponent. In the last minutes, they could have scored because they had clear chances. But we tried every possible way, every possible path.”
Following the match, a confrontation between Uruguay players and Colombian fans in the stands sparked an investigation by CONMEBOL. Uruguay will now face Canada in the third-place playoff on Saturday.
