Luis Suarez, forced to watch his team’s painful opening round defeat to the Costa Ricans from the bench, was back in the mix of things, starting for Uruguay in this massive game against England. From his reactions following Uruguay’s unravelling against Costa Rica, you could make out that he wanted in. He wanted to be a part of the action, wanted to be able to help out his side in the middle, instead of being a passive onlooker from the sidelines.
For the game against England, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez was always going to pick Suarez. If he ever had the slightest doubts about whether to include his star man in the team to face the English earlier, those doubts were certainly dispelled after the opening game shock. Uruguay had to respond and they needed their talismanic striker for without him they had looked very pedestrian in their loss to the Costa Ricans.
England manager Roy Hodgson stated after the game that he felt that his team controlled Suarez reasonably well. He could not have been more delusional.Suarez was just one man, but his heralded a return of confidence for a squad of 23 and an entire South American nation. Many English ‘pundits’ and analysts said one man’s return would cause no significant upswing in Uruguay’s fortunes. But they were forgetting, that the “one man” in question was Suarez.
Sure, Suarez did not put in a performance that ripped the spine out of England’s footballers. He did not run roughshod over Hodgson’s team. He did not single-handedly will his Uruguayan team to victory. He did not make England’s defenders tremble at the knees with his pace and movement and trickery. But what he did do is have THE most telling contribution in a match that was decided on fine margins. And that is what you ultimately expect from a star player, reportedly still a week away from being back to 100% after his knee surgery.
Bang… bang…
Two clear goal scoring opportunities… two goals…
Three points for Uruguay and England’s chances of progress up in smoke.
It was Suarez’s talent that left its stamp on the game. He was, by a long shot, the single, most talented player on the pitch out of all the players who stepped onto the field that night in Sao Paulo. Suarez is right up there with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi amongst the best attackers in the world. And for Uruguay, just as for Liverpool, he has become a key cog, one without which their effectiveness takes quite a beating. He was the top scorer in the CONMEBOL qualifying section, his 11 goals a large part of why Uruguay made it to Brazil 2014 in the first place.
And the emotion of the moment flooded through for Suarez as he realized that he had made it back and made it good for his team, the ultimate service rendered and all the faith in him repaid.
The effect that his presence had on his teammates was there for everyone to see too. Along with the much needed personnel change that Tabarez commissioned, Uruguay played with renewed energy, and above all, belief, that if they kept their end of the bargain in their respective roles, their star striker would provide the finishing touches that would lead them to a much needed bounce-back victory.
Uruguay did not do a drastic Jekyll to Hyde transformation with Suarez’s return, but they did play more solidly and strove to eliminate some of the mistakes they made in their opener. Overall, there was a collective spirit that seemed to be coursing through the team inspired by their lead striker’s return to the fold and a desperation brought about by their earlier unexpected loss. Alvaro Pereira, though foolish to ignore his doctor’s advice and get back to playing after a concussion, exemplified that with a burning desire to be there for his team.
England knew what they were going to deal with; many in their team have been sparring with Suarez for more than three seasons now in the English Premier League to not know. Suarez was definitely going to have an impact on this game in some way, and there was nothing they could do about it. Well, apart from affording him even more help with defensive lapses that once again helped them shoot themselves in the foot.
When you prepare to go head to head with one of the best players in the world, albeit even if not at full tilt, you simply cannot afford the kind of glaring defensive errors we saw from England to creep into your game.
A lack of pace and anticipation in England’s backline was exposed in both goals they conceded. From their failure to put Edinson Cavani under more pressure even when they had the three on two numbers advantage for the first, to Gary Cahill simply failing to anticipate the trajectory and path the ball would take after it flicked off Steven Gerrard’s head for the second, the Three Lions displayed a lack of basic defensive nous when faced up against one of the premier attackers in world football. And it cost them dear.
What was also glaring was the absence of that one true superstar on their side who could have such a telling impact on the game. And no, Wayne Rooney no longer fits in that category. These are questions for England to probe as they will now look forward to qualification for Euro 2016.
But in Luis Suarez, they have a player who they can fully bank on for providing them with a decisive advantage when the situation calls for it. They have in their ranks a top, top player who is amongst the best in the game at the moment. And in situations like this, in the biggest games, on the biggest of stages, Suarez’s presence provides Uruguay with the much needed reassurance and that most important of four letter words – HOPE – of progressing deeper at these 2014 World Cup finals.
Uruguay move to the shootout in Natal with their sharpshooter’s barrels still smoking from his twin strikes that sunk England.
