Connect with us

English Premier League

Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch rips into Copa America fiasco with tournament heavily marred

Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch rips into Copa America fiasco with this summer’s tournament heavily marred in a number of ways.

Uruguay’s Bielsa said that his players should receive an apology from Colombia fans over the brawl that broke out in the stands following his side’s Copa America semi-final defeat on Wednesday.

Several Uruguay players – including Darwin Nunez – and a group of Colombia fans clashed at the Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina.

Colombia fans were placed in an area where the family members of the Uruguay squad were also sitting.

Conmebol, South American football’s governing body, has opened an investigation into what happened, with suggestions that some Uruguay players could be banned for their involvement.

In his press conference ahead of his side’s third-place match against Canada on Saturday, Bielsa went on a huge rant over the poor organisation of the tournament in the US and also took issue with CONMEBOL on pitch conditions.

‘They’ve said that the pitches are in perfect condition and all the lies they have said here, doing a press conference to say that the pitches are perfect and you see how the grass patches won’t work,’ Bielsa began.

‘And they said the training facilities are perfect, but Bolivia couldn’t train and I have pictures to prove that it’s all lies, this is a plague of liars.’

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was the first to criticise the state of the pitch after their opening game in Atlanta, saying: ‘They knew seven months ago that we’d play here and they changed the field two days ago.’

‘It’s not an excuse, but this isn’t a good field. Sincerely, the field is not apt for these players.’

However, CONMEBOL responded by saying the process of putting temporary pitches took place a year ago and that ‘aesthetics can give the wrong perception.’

Bielsa also slammed the tournament’s organisers: ‘And then we speak — even if I already said everything I promised myself I wouldn’t say — and there are threats. Scaloni spoke once, he dared to say that the union on the grass wasn’t proper, which are all known mistakes.

‘The Americans won’t tell you, ‘I’ll give you a perfect pitch,” Bielsa continued. ‘They’ll tell you, ‘I’ll give you a pitch put together three days ago,’ and the joints between grass patches don’t fit together.

‘Look for a play on yesterday’s game inside the box and you’ll see how the ball double-taps and it’s because of that. And the training facilities were a disaster and Bolivia couldn’t train but they said, ‘It’s fine, it’s Bolivia.’

‘Then the penalty for Brazil and all the injustices with the lower classes of the competition, they say nothing about that. And then you get the referees being accused by the president of the federation saying they didn’t call a penalty for Brazil knowing how that conditions the next game, you know how this all is.’

Darwin Nunez jumps into crowd and starts fighting with Colombia fans to protect family

Bielsa said on the troubling scenes in the stands for the game against Colombia: “You know whose responsibility it is to protect the fans in the stands.

“You have to ask me whether the players have received an apology from those responsible for safeguarding security.

“How can you not defend your mother, your sister, a baby?!” If they did not do it, they would have been condemned by all of us.

“The sanction does not have to be for the footballers, but for those who forced them to act like that. This is a witch hunt. It is a shame.

“You should have asked me if we have received an apology, not if I fear sanctions. Here, the message was we cannot defend your family, and we cannot allow them to flee. What sanction are they talking to me about?!”

Jesse Marsch also criticised Copa America, echoing some of Marcelo Bielsa’s rant.

Marsch said: Yeah I saw I didn’t watch the whole press conference but I saw some of Marcelo’s comments you know I agree with certain things and then I disagree with certain things for me this tournament has not been professional for me there’s too many gaps in the way in the treatment in the overall experience from a day-to-day perspective you know.

I watched what happened after the match and certainly I didn’t know all the details but you know certainly we wouldn’t want anyone’s families or any players families to be put in harms way but I know if Team Canada if our team would have responded like this that there would be heavy sanctions because of the treatment that we received from in this tournament, the whole time we’ve had our players be headbutted, we’ve had racial slurs thrown at our players live and through social media.

“We’ve been treated like second class citizens and in the entire time I’ve challenged our team to stay disciplined and stay focused on our task at hand and to make sure that we represent ourselves and our country because in the end that’s what this is this is about representing your nation, you’re on the national team and our players have held themselves to the highest level of integrity, we’ve played hard we’ve played aggressive we’ve often been accused by the opposing coach before the match as a play to the referees that that we’re we cross the line and that we’re overly aggressive, and yet the if you look at the Concacaf teams and the treatment that they get in games and the yellow cards per foul rate is way higher for every Concacaf team I watched the Uruguay – US game and it was for me one of the most biased ref games against the United States that I’ve ever seen on their home soil.

“There’s so many things I could say but what I will again say is is a big compliment to our team and to our focus and our discipline and our concentration to control what we can control they’ve never crossed the line they’ve never berated referees they’ve never rolled around on the ground like children looking for calls and yellows from referees they’ve held themselves with professional integrity and been an incredible representation of what it means to be a Canadian high level athlete and in that sense we’re going to go out again in in another tough match against another really good opponent and know that there’s going to be many things going against us but we’re going to make sure that we uphold again our standards our discipline our belief in ourselves and we’re going to show what we think being a Canadian is all about.”

Uruguay will face Canada in the third-place match on Saturday before Sunday’s final between Argentina and Colombia, meaning the two ex-Leeds managers will go face to face.

You can watch what he said in full by watching the video below…

This is how fans reacted as Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch rips into the Copa America fiasco with the tournament heavily marred…

@MarkHowsham: Sadly, when it’s outside of south America it’s not the same. This @CopaAmerica has been the worst I’ve seen since starting to watch in late eighties.

@EricNjiiru: Copa America hasn’t turned out how USA wished- a good preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2026- instead it has damaged the country’s image with managers now calling out several shortcomings. Both Bielsa and Jesse Marsch critical of the whole organization of the tournament

@RossHodgson12: Fuck I miss him, worst thing leeds ever did getting rid of him.

@Fernaticalg: The last time Bielsa was this annoyed was when the contractors put the sockets at thorp arch in the wrong place!

@DaftNufc: Love this bloke. Not enough people have the balls to say it how it is these days. Need more like him.

@PompeyKai: Why are the pitches at international tournaments always so bad… Do the governing bodies have their own set of groundsmen that work on the pitches or something? Because you’d imagine they’d be in tip top condition if they were left to the groundsmen that are employed FT on them 🤔

@acko1919: One of the few good men in football, just loves the game and hates all the bullshit going on. Nothing he says is wrong either, that entire tournament has been a shit show, everyone else is just too scared to say it. El loco 🇦🇷👑

@WestHamViews09: The World Cup is going to be something else. 🤣🤣🤣

@marcelopontes8: They will host the next World Cup btw

@bhavinho2: copa america hasn’t gave the US the best reputation. need world cup 2026 to be a lot better.

@AGPennyPacker13: I could not love a man more

@DSmivers_: Protect this man please

@Roper4Elliot: Biggest personality in football history

@LukeGray_96: You can’t not love this man!

@Lynchyyyyy: Miss this man to infinity

@mishi19977: I luv n miss this man.

@MattForner: He’s absolutely right. The treatment between Concacaf teams and CONMEBOL teams is a night and day difference. The refs are completely biased and teams like the U.S., Canada, and others should threaten to not participate in future tournaments if something doesn’t change. Treated this poorly on home soil is a disgrace. And yes, total difference between some teams with players rolling around on the ground and others simply getting up when hurt. If the sport wants to grow in North America, it’s gotta fix that.

@OFFtheBARtoons: Wow… can we sign Marsch to a long term deal now? Love EVERYTHING he said… proud that he’s called out all the BS embellishment and biased officiating. COPA needs to bring in officials from OUTSIDE of the region to officiate honest/fair games without fear of reprisal once they return home. Maybe the EURO should do the same (though I think the officiating standard has been better in that tournament). Either way, brilliant job by Marsch… think we’re winning the 3rd place game tomorrow.

@HungarianFooty: This guy is fantastic. So well said, and I’m damn glad he wasn’t afraid to say any of it.

@lcddillon: I’d rather be 🇨🇦 then a baby rolling around on the floor or faking holding a card above my head trying to influence the ref

@gc_fotos: 👏👏👏 This guy should get a honorary Canadian citizenship.

@Archiebonker: One of the best press conference I’ve ever seen

@npnthr: This guy is such a great fit for us right now

@adamo_marinelli: Marsch is absolutely spot on here, about pretty much everything

@eatmnsmile86: The biased officiating was on full display vs Canada 15 fouls to 5 and most of the Canadian fouls were ridiculous while Davies picks up a twisted ankle that didn’t get called , cmon Copa America do better

@Toddy_LUFC:
Fuck Copa America
Fuck USA
Fuck the pitches
Fuck the training grounds
Fuck the Brazilians
Fuck the EFL
Fuck Sky TV
Fuck Jesse Marsch
Fuck the play offs
Come home El Loco

@knowlesm: Marcelo Bielsa is glorious. But off his long run it’s an even greater sight to behold. Long live El Loco. No lies detected below. All the very best to @Uruguay @UruguayFootENG as they fight for justice for their players. #lufc#elequipoquenosune

@onfireMcG: This guy is legend get him back on the bucket at ER he would get us back to premier league no danger 😀 #lufc #Bielsa #CopaAmerica2024

@Marc_Johnson21: The passion & integrity. Speaks with such knowledge, this man made me feel a love for football I didn’t know was possible. Forever grateful for #Bielsa at @LUFC & hope one day he is commemorated by my club. He united a city and worked miracles.

@ChicagoWhite: The very best and it’s because he doesn’t give a fuck he tells the truth! It’s a total pleasure that he graced #LUFC doors he made #LUFC, #LUFC fans better and I know it’s hard to belive made Yorkshire better & more beautiful. Why Bielsa wasn’t offered a job for life is insane

@RhysHughes: God I miss Bielsa, speaking truth to power #epicrant #lufc

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in English Premier League