Cape Verde boss says Uruguay incident did not match ex-Leeds United coach Marcelo Bielsa's fairness
The boss of plucky World Cup underdogs Cape Verde says he was disappointed that Uruguay did not play by ex-Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa's sense of fairness in their 2-2 draw.
An enthralling game ended in a draw as Cape Verde impressively followed up their 0-0 stalemate with Spain. Kevin Pina hammered in a free-kick to score their first ever World Cup goal, and though Maxi Araujo and Agustin Canobbio put Uruguay 2-1 up, Helio Varela equalised to leave both sides level on two points.
After the game Cape Verde coach brought up an incident in the build-up to Uruguay's first goal, when one of Bielsa's side initially attempted to help Cape Verde's Telmo Arcanjo with cramp. Federico Viñas then realised his team were on the attack, dropped Arcanjo's leg and played on.
Cape Verde coach Bubista felt it was not in the spirit of Bielsa's legendary approach to fair play. The Argentine won a FIFA Fair Play award while at Leeds for allowing Aston Villa to score a goal after the Whites hit the net in what the Villans felt were controversial circumstances.
"I was upset by that, because Bielsa taught us to have fair play," said Bubista. "That's in his press conferences, that's in the matches that his teams play. We learned what fair play was from his attitude," he said.
"It felt frustrating, but that's part of the game and part of the experience of growing with the team. We could have done something to prevent that situation, we could have kicked the ball off the pitch, but we're trying to do things our own way. It's also natural that players will sometimes feel pressured and we can say that about the Uruguay team as well. We can only grow from what happened."
As for Bielsa, whose team are under real pressure to escape from Group H with a game still to come against group leaders Spain, he felt his side were 'disorganised' in chaotic late scenes.
“The team was highly disorganised,” he said. “We would attack while running the risk of them scoring against us at the end of the match. We could have won the match and we also could have lost the match. Undoubtedly, Uruguay is a better squad than Cape Verde. But this has to be shown."