Chile will miss a third consecutive World Cup after losing 0-2 to Bolivia on Tuesday, remaining last in South America’s 10-team round-robin competition.
Head coach Ricardo Gareca later said he was standing down after his team’s failure.
Later, Uruguay beat Venezuela at home 2-0, with goals from Rodrigo Aguirre and Giorgian de Arrascaeta, and drew closer to one of the region’s six direct spots in the World Cup with 24 points after 16 matches. The visitors, with 18 points, are one ahead of Bolivia in the fight for seventh place that grants an intercontinental playoff berth. Uruguay is seven points above eighth-place Bolivia.
Chile’s golden generation won two Copa America titles — in 2015 and ‘16 — but is out of contention for next year’s expanded 48-team tournament.
“Sad, I am feeling bad. I never lived something like this. We have to ask people to forgive us,” veteran Chile striker Alexis Sanchez said.
He continued, “We have to keep working. There is change already, the golden generation is buried, I am the only one left!”
Bolivia scored first via Miguel Terceros in the fifth minute and added a second in the 90th with Enzo Monteiro at the 4,150-meter-high El Alto Stadium, outside La Paz.
Gareca, the 67-year-old Argentinian coach who took Peru to the 2018 World Cup, told a post-game news conference he was leaving the team after a 17-match stretch that included four wins, four draws, and nine losses.
