What is happening in Uruguay?

The “same thing happened in the first game, we didn’t come out to win” by Josema Giménez and Edinson Cavani’s “tactical approach ask (Diego) Alonso (DT of Uruguay)”.moments after the game ended with a defeat against Portugal that left Uruguay on the brink, they could not be overlooked.

They are two references, historical. In Cavani’s case, one of the five playing their fourth World Cup. And Josema Giménez, his third Cup at the age of only 27, but well won the heavyweight title in the squad.

In addition, in a mechanism in this World Cup where contacts with the protagonists are minimal, every word, every gesture, has an extraordinary force.

The truth, the concrete, is that the light blue has been trained for 15 years by Maestro Tabárez to solve all interior kitchen issues, without any high-sounding statements.

Because of this, these words from Josema and Cavani are making noise.

And soon, Luis Suárez’s tweet arrived, a kind of response for his teammates. “All defeats hurt, more than a World Cup. Now it’s time to come together as a group and not look for more excuses”.

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Being together, as a group, for no reason. The message for the inmate of the Uruguayan team was very clear.

What is happening in Uruguay?

There is a combination of factors that, as usually happens in life, constitute a multi-causal explanation.

This is a Transition World Cup for Uruguaywhere the historic ones from South Africa 2010, who are in their fourth and last World Cup, and the generation of Valverde, Bentancur, Darwin Nuñez, Mathias Olivera, who are emerging, coexist.

At half water in age, Josema Giménez and De Arrascaeta remain.

But the ‘generals’ with the most stripes, the historic ones, the ones with the powerful voice in the dressing room, Call each other Godín and Suárez, they can no longer offer football solutions at first, based on where the light blue achieved victories in the three previous World Cups.

Then, his voice loses legitimacy because he can’t endorse the authority in the dressing rooms on the field.

And the young caciques, with little voice, but better news, in the big leagues and big teams, Fede Valverde at Real Madrid, Darwin Nuñez at Liverpool and Rodrigo Bentancur at Tottenham, they have not yet assumed the leading role that circumstances require.

Only Bentancur was the figure. Darwin fell into a general stupor, and Valverde into a dropper.

Managing transitions has not been easy, and the end of the cycle is usually not a bed of roses or a fairy tale.

do not burn

If the Tabárez cycle has a characteristic in Uruguay, it is that the football players are convinced of the coach’s ideas, to the point of being able to burn themselves for the coach’s concepts.

Until they stop believing in the Master, as they did before, and the cycle ends.

Diego Alonso has been in charge of the Uruguayan team for eleven months. He took it in a difficult moment, saved it from a hair in the standings, added four victories in four games and qualified for the World Cup.

But the statements of Josema Giménez and Cavani on Monday night opened doubts how convinced the footballers are of the coach’s proposal, and if they don’t assume that the role that Alonso announced and promised are empty words, with a very conservative game in the first two games of the World Cup.

It seems that none of the 26 will destroy themselves for Alonso’s ideas. And without faith, there is no paradise.

We are what we are

This is how we Uruguayans are. Punishing to qualify for the round of 16, forced to win against Ghana.

This pick came with a very high level of expectation from the fanswho got used to great performances in 2010-2014-2018, and now, hostage to his success, demanding at least to be in the quarterfinals again.

These last three World Cups have seen victories and goals, 22 in total, but we forget that we needed nine Cups, between 1974 and 2006, to score nine goals!

And that we no longer have offensive monsters, call yourself Diego Forlán, Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani. These last two are shadows of themselves.

There is a team with two figures in the midfield of exceptional level, but the football is defined in places. And therein lies Uruguay’s downfall.

On Friday against Ghana the team will certainly go for changes. Forced, defeated because of being lost, he will take more risks. And this will reveal its true limitations.