In these last FIFA dates before the World Cup squads are announced, most of the coaches are merely ticking over, enjoying the chance to get the group together and looking at fringe options, with the basic plan for Qatar already well established.
This should be especially true of the South Americans. Since the middle of 2019 they have played two versions of the Copa America plus eighteen rounds of World Cup qualifiers — more than enough competitive games to whip their team into shape. That is certainly true of Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador.
But it does not apply to Uruguay. Diego Alonso was only appointed as coach at the end of last year. He still has a lot of hard work to do and a lot of big decisions to take, which makes Uruguay’s friendlies against Iran and Canada among the most interesting encounters of the next few days.
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Alonso was brought in after the end of the epic 15-year reign of Oscar Washington Tabarez, under whose calm guidance Uruguay returned to football’s top table. In hindsight, it might have been better had Tabaez stepped down after Russia 2018. But it is easy to understand why he was seduced into staying.
The road to Qatar would coincide with the footballing maturity of the new, bright midfielders — Federico Valverde and Rodrigo Bentancur — and it would also be a last hurrah for the veteran pillars of his side — the likes of Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin, plus Fernando Muslera and Martin Caceres. On paper it looked wonderful. On the pitch there were problems.
