The manager says he intends staying on and seeing his contract through to the end of the 2014 World Cup. The Copa America exit clearly hurts but the larger picture is the World Cup and its preparations.
Batista mentioned that the team did not play upto expectations against Bolivia and Colombia. But they found themselves in the Costa Rican match and played exceptionally well in the first half against Uruguay despite going behind early. He singled out Leo Messi.
“Leo played exceptionally well in those 30 minutes. The idea was to widen the game with more players. But our tactics changed after the bad luck with Mascherano and we could not find more offense even after bringing on Pastore.”
“This is not failure. We did everything we could to win the Copa America. That we could not do so is not failure. That is just too strong a word. We gave it our best and that is why I am undisturbed.”
These are revisionist words. The goal always was to win the Copa in home soil. Argentina last meaningful title was the 1993 Copa America and as Jonathan Wilson points out Batista lost the tactical battle to Oscar Tabarez.