(Reuters) – Brazil coach Dorival Junior said his team was still a work in progress with plenty of room to grow and improve as he turned focus to World Cup qualifiers after their Copa America quarter-final defeat to Uruguay on Saturday.
Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay were reduced to 10 men in the second half but held off Brazil in regular time and won 4-2 on penalties to reach the semi-finals, where they will face Colombia.
Brazil has not impressed in this tournament, drawing twice in the group stage and only managing to beat Paraguay, resulting in a quarter-final exit for the second consecutive major tournament after the 2022 World Cup.
“We are undergoing a very important reform or restructuring of this squad. I have only coached this team for eight games but this is a process that we have to go through,” Dorival said, taking “full responsibility” for the team's departures.
“We know there will be obstacles along the way but losing the knockout games was unexpected.
“But again, we have a lot of room to continue to grow, evolve and improve and our main goal right now is to qualify for the World Cup. Right now we're sixth in the (CONMEBOL) standings and we're not satisfied with where we are.”
Dorival, who only took over as national team coach in January, also praised Bielsa's Uruguay side, saying the Argentine has instilled his own philosophy into the squad and made them the team Brazil should aspire to be.
“I think there is a pattern with the Uruguay national team, a very clear pattern. They have been training together for a long time. They had some problems at the beginning but they fixed them,” Dorival said.
“Right now they're doing great things, and I think we can definitely achieve the same results, but it takes time to make the adjustments.”
“We had some issues at the beginning of the tournament. I think we were able to correct a lot of our mistakes. It's tough considering how long we had to work to speed up the process. I think we have more time going forward.”
(Reporting by Rohit Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
