Brazil Coach Dorival Junior said he has taken “full responsibility” over his team’s underwhelming Copa América quarterfinal exit within days of losing to 10-man Uruguay 4-2 in a penalty shootout on Saturday.
“The kind of work that has to be done here requires tremendous patience,” said Dorival, who took charge in January, after the defeat at Allegiant Stadium.
“Basically, what he said. But it is proper respect that these weren’t the expected results, something for which I take full responsibility, and at the same time, I think this team possesses massive spaces to grow and evolve and improve.”
Even after playing with an extra man following the red card on Uruguay’s Nahitan Nández in the 74th minute, Brazil could not break as physical a battle of a game, with a tournament-label 41 fouls played out to a 0-0 result at the end of 90 minutes and sent it to penalties.
Éder Militão and Douglas Luiz both failed to score for Brazil, while Uruguay defender José María Giménez was denied by Alisson Becker, but Manuel Ugarte converted the winning spot kick to send Uruguay into the last four and condemn Brazil to an early exit.
The Brazilian nightmare finally came full circle as it returned home after scraping through the group stage with just one win and then got defeated at the hands of Uruguay in the first knockout round.
It is also the worst result for the Brazilians, who were finalists in 2021 and champions in 2019 upon the last two occasions it was held.
“This is an ongoing process; in general, you come across difficulties when you are creating a team,” said Dorival of his team, without suspended Vinícius Júnior in the quarterfinal.
“This was our first official tournament, and the result was far from what was expected … our main objective now is to qualify for the World Cup.”