Thomas Tuchel blamed for Uruguay World Cup humiliation despite not being in England’s group

‘Other countries have their history; Uruguay has its football’ was the immortal quote from the team’s manager at the World Cup where football came home for England.

60 years on from Ondino Viera’s mantra, his latest successor has been told he can shift blame for their World Cup woes on the Three Lions.

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Marcelo Bielsa has seemingly brought the curtain down on a horror tenure in charge of Uruguay with a disastrous group-stage exit.

It is the second successive World Cup in which the first-ever winners of the competition have failed to reach the knockout stages.

Bielsa couldn’t hide his anguish after a 1-0 defeat by Spain ensured Uruguay finished third in Group H on just two points.

The Argentine, allowing his frustrations to get the better of him, mirrored the attitude of his players as their World Cup dreams faded.

Uruguay’s Nicolas de la Cruz rashly wiped out Nico Williams in a challenge that injured the Spanish star, with Agustin Canobbio also sent off for diving in on Pau Cubarsi.

South American football expert Tim Vickery explained the reason behind the head loss is just how much football means to the country.

“I remember being at a club game,” he told talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs. “It was Botafogo [from] Brazil against Nacional, one of the big Uruguayan sides.

“And loads of their fans, they’ve come up, they’ve journeyed up like 24 hours on the coach, on buses to be there.

“They went two goals down in the first three minutes. And you’re thinking, well, there’s only one scoreline that matters now. How many of them are going to get sent off?

“That’s the whole thing. Obviously, it was like two or three. It comes from the fact that football means so much.

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“There’s that famous phrase that the coach who brought them to the ’66 World Cup used,” Vickery continued on Viera’s iconic quote.

“Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its football. When they’re losing, it does feel, remember, they’re the first champions of the World Cup. They’re the first organisers of the World Cup.
They’re the first kings of the global game.

“In some ways, the victims of their own success because everything that people now associate with Brazil, it used to be Uruguay pre-war.

“They weren’t just the cloggers at all. When they come over and win the 1924 Olympics, which is the birth of the modern game, it’s the moment when football outgrows the Olympics.

“The accounts of the football that they’re playing in the French press is just extraordinary. The French press couldn’t get over the beauty of the Uruguayan game. And that’s what it is.

“The shirt is like the proof of the nation. How many other things do you think about when you mention Uruguay?

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“You may, if you’re a bully beef enthusiast, you may think of Fray Bentos. You’re not going to think of much else.

“It is football. So it does feel, when they’re losing, it does feel like it’s almost like the nation’s been invaded. So watch out.”

Find your own way home

Such is the anger at Uruguay’s showing at the World Cup that the players’ charter flight was cancelled by their Football Association.

Instead, each member of the squad and coaching staff had to arrange their own way back via commercial flights.

“I suppose it saves them collectively from the tomatoes at Montevideo Airport,” Vickery added.

“Instead of which they can kind of go back in dribs and drabs a little bit like Napoleon’s army in the retreat from Moscow.”

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Tuchel to blame?

Even Jason Cundy would have struggled to find any encouraging signs from Uruguay in the build-up to the World Cup.

In November, they were thrashed 5-1 by the USA and only a stoppage-time penalty rescued a 1-1 draw against England in March.

Uruguay’s record goalscorer Luis Suarez made himself available to his country ahead of the World Cup after a 19-month absence from international football, only to be left out of Bielsa’s squad.

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The Celeste played no warm-up games before the tournament, and were then left stranded in Mexico ahead of their World Cup opener.

Their striker for the 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia, Darwin Nunez, hadn’t played competitively since February after being frozen out by Al Hilal.

Captain Federico Valverde bore scars from his high-profile training ground bust-up with Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni.

And Fernando Muslera became the first goalkeeper in history to make three mistakes leading to goals in a single World Cup, having only come out of retirement at Bielsa’s request earlier this year.

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“I can’t imagine [we’ll see Bielsa again],” Vickery told talkSPORT.

“It’s not entirely his fault. It is striking how many of these players have not kicked on in their club careers. It’s really, really striking.

“But he has made an absolute horlicks of it. And it’s clear who we should blame. Tommy Tuchel.

“It’s all Tommy Tuchel’s fault, because they lost 5-1 to the States in November.

“Are they going to get rid of Bielsa before the World Cup? And it all hung on those March friendlies.

“And I don’t know if you remember the game, but Uruguay came in very uncharacteristically for a Bielsa side.

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“They didn’t get out of their own half, but they snatched an equaliser right at the end with a penalty.

“And England, it was one of those Tommy Tuchel friendlies that I don’t think he took particularly seriously.

“Had England gone out at full tilt and played that friendly at full tilt and put Uruguay away by 3 or 4 goals, Uruguay would have been forced to make a change. So I blame the England coach.”