Oscar Washington Tábarez has been in charge of the Uruguayan team for more than 15 years. He took office in March 2006. He is the coach who currently holds the merit of being the oldest in the world. No other coach has been in charge of a national team for so long today. In addition to his other period at the helm of Uruguay, between 1988 and 1990, he has led the celestial for more than 200 games. He was the coach in four World Cups, Italy 1990, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.
In this, his fifth South American Qualifier, he is going for his fifth World Cup. But time is a relentless tyrant, and the present gives sensations that do not coincide with the successful past.
This saturday the leaders of the Uruguayan Soccer Association met with Tabárez and the rest of the team’s coaching staff for two hours at the Celeste Complex. At this time, lighting up on Sunday, there is no definition. It is not clear if TabÁrez will be the coach in the last six dates of the Qualifiers, but it is anticipated that this Sunday there will be a definition of the Uruguayan leaders. As never before, from the World Cup in South Africa to the present, the continuity of the coach was so in doubt. Today it hangs by a thread.
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Uruguay is fifth in the table after 66 percent of the Qualifiers, in a play-off position to reach Qatar, the same place that it occupied at the end of the Qualifiers for 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, The question is not the now, but in the immediate future. The celestial today is not bad. The point is that it is going wrong.
The last two defeats to Argentina and Brazil, In four days, receiving seven goals but exposed to far better goals against both teams, he delivered the worst image of the Uruguayan team in years. Quebrada, without a fighting spirit, was never a real opponent of Argentines and Brazilians. It did not make them party.
Several aspects converge. On the one hand, an obvious and inevitable wear after 15 years. That human condition of rejecting everything that is maintained too long has led to a barrage of criticism from the fans from social networks.
Historical players have been abandoning ship because biology has marked their retirement from the courts. The last five Mohicans of South Africa 2010 remain: the captain Diego Godìn, Luis Suárez, Edinson Cavani, Fernando Muslera and Martín Cáceres. That they are no longer the same. Those who won matches on their own, today are willing exponents of an important effort, but far from decisive in the field of other times.
There is a perception that the arrival of the coach to the players is not the same. In other times, the players of the Uruguayan team were also sacrificed by the ideas of Tabárez. Hoy it does not seem that they are willing to such an attitude. The silence of the historical references, even though Luis Suàrez made a publication on social networks, is a very evident absence of implicit support for the technician. There are silences that speak more than a thousand words.
Another aspect, which should not have any influence, but does, It is the political position of Tabárez. He is a man linked to the left, who ruled Uruguay for the last 15 years. Today, another political party has assumed the political leadership of the country. This well-known political stance of the coach has fueled a crack in public opinion, in which a position is taken for or against the coach according to the political vote of the fan. It does not happen in all cases, but it does happen in part of the fans. It shouldn’t happen, but it does.
Tabárez has built a driving style in the Uruguayan team, appointing footballers according to his idea, which allowed Uruguay to return to the top places in the World Championships. The sporty Uruguay with integrity should thank him, but amid the heat of the evaluation of the immediate results, the majority of the fans think differently.
But beyond the past the decision that Uruguayan leaders will make this Sunday it will be thinking about the future. It is not clear that the coach can execute the revulsives that allow him to get out of very poor performances and re-qualify for the World Cup. Nor that players, veterans, and the youngest are so convinced of their coach. Today there will be a definition and the soccer Uruguay is in vigil, awaiting the decision.