Football Daily | Uruguay misfire and leave Bielsa-ball in danger of kicking the bucket

ON THE BRINK Anyone brave enough to predict the Geopolitics World Cup knockout bracket before the tournament would have clocked that Argentina could meet Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay in the last 32 and thought: “Cor, that’ll be fun”. But nothing seems to be very fun for the two-time winners at the moment. After narrowly avoiding defeat by Saudi Arabia in their opener in Miami, Uruguay were held again by Cape Verde at Hard [Luck] Stadium, meaning Bielsa-ball might not go beyond the group stage after all. “I think that the problem or greatest issue is that we started the second half with the ball and with the victory,” Bielsa sniffed after climbing down from his upturned water bucket. “We lacked a finishing touch,” he added. Good thing the GWC TV directors kept cutting to Luis Suárez lurking somewhere in a posh suite – tantalisingly close to Gianni, no doubt – and we could all be reminded of said finishing touch. Suárez graciously made himself available for a call-up just weeks before GWC having patriotically ruled himself out of selection after falling out with Bielsa a couple of years ago. One bone of contention Suárez had was that midfielder Agustín Canobbio was allegedly forced to train as a ball boy at the 2024 Copa América and, well, that’s just not on. …