Marcelo Bielsa never shies away from doing things differently.
From “murderball” training sessions to contemplative press conferences, to sitting on a bucket on the sidelines, he is a man shrouded in mystery, his tactical mind as revered as it is difficult to fully understand.
On June 23, The Athletic’s journalists were two of the first in at The Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, around three hours before Bielsa’s Uruguay side stepped onto the pitch for their opening Copa America group match against Panama, but already the 68-year-old Argentinian had us scratching our heads…
… what was with the big orange box marked out on the pitch?
With Uruguay now preparing to take on Colombia in a semifinal at the Bank of America Stadium, in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight (early Thursday UK time), we look at what the markings are for.
Those unexplained markings — roughly 80 yards of fluorescent orange tape laid down on the pitch — have also been there in East Rutherford (New Jersey), Kansas City and Las Vegas, for all of Uruguay’s victories in the tournament up to this point.
Touching the centre circle at its outermost edge, the square stops just short of the penalty box “D” on its opposite side.
Watching Uruguay’s players interact with the box doesn’t reveal too much initially; they all completely ignore it as they trot onto the pitch, usually around 20 minutes after their opponents have started their warm-up.
Before their quarterfinal clash with Brazil (which Uruguay won in a penalty shootout after a goalless draw), three drills are going on outside this mysterious box — a rondo, sprints, and goalkeeper practice — which has Bielsa’s makeshift sideline-seating for the tournament, a drinks cooler, placed in the middle of it.
It gets to 5:33pm local time — 27 minutes before kick-off — before anybody acknowledges that this giant, orange square exists.
The 10 outfield starters, already colour-coded into red and yellow bibs, amble over.
We see they are in two teams of four, seemingly randomly assigned, but with two “jokers” who have remained consistent throughout the tournament — Nicolas de la Cruz and Darwin Nunez — two key attacking players dressed in black.
What comes next is a game of keep-ball inside the box, six versus four, but with a classic Bielsa twist. The pace is frantic, seemingly two-touch, with two coaches bouncing around the taped-out perimeter, barking instructions. Whenever a pass is misplaced, a new ball is rolled straight back in.
According to a source close to Bielsa, who will remain anonymous to protect relationships, the idea is to practise playing in tight spaces in the centre of the pitch, before looking to move the ball quickly either forward or out wide.
If Uruguay anticipate the team they are about to face will block out the middle and look to hit them on the break, the drill becomes two-touch for the players in the centre of the box, who must try to find the “jokers” on its perimeter as quickly as they can.
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This replicates the strategy needed to break down centrally-compact teams in matches: speed of movement and interplay to keep the ball away from pressure in the middle of the pitch, and direct balls into the channels to find Uruguay’s wingers in space and attack down the flanks, or to find Nunez up front.
Against sides that can match Uruguay and will go man-for-man, the exercise is geared towards accumulating a higher number of passes in the square before finding De la Cruz and Nunez. This is to draw opponents in, before again looking to use width or verticality as directly as possible.
The curious part of it all is that, while extremely intense, the drill lasts for barely two minutes, and soon coaches are ripping the carefully-laid tape up again.
Amid the quirks and eccentricities, the only thing predictable about Bielsa is the style of play his coaching builds — aggressive, uncompromising and unashamedly in-your-face.
How he goes about encouraging that energy from his players, almost four decades into an eclectic coaching career, is still keeping us on our toes.
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(Top photo: Frederic J Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
