Suarez: the hand, foot and mouth of God
The World Cup of Uruguay striker Luis Suarez hangs in the balance after a biting controversy during his side’s 1-0 win over Italy.
Suarez is one of the explosive talents and characters in football who scores sublime goals at crucial moments and then scars his reputation with his seemingly uncontrollable mouth.
The hot-headed Uruguayan is back in trouble after a stunning season with Liverpool when his brilliance on the pitch had started to ease memories of past brushes with authority.
But the 27-year-old has quite a history.
The 2010 World Cup quarter-final between Uruguay and Ghana was level 1-1 in the final minute of extra-time when Suarez used his hand to keep out Dominic Adiyah’s header.
Suarez was sent off but Asamoah Gyan failed to convert the resulting penalty. With the match ending 1-1, Uruguay claimed victory in a shootout.
Suarez’s joyous celebrations – he said he made the “save of the tournament” – angered many neutrals who felt justice was not done.
“I stick with the feeling of having helped my team,” he said of the incident recently.
“I stopped a goal, and I believe that it is worse when you stop a goal and injure an opponent, seriously injure them, and get sent off for that.
“Stopping a goal with my hand I believe did nothing evil to anyone, it was just stopping a goal.”
You might like
Remarkably the Liverpool star’s reputation plunged lower in the next three years.
In December 2011, Suarez was banned for eight matches and fined STG40,000 ($A73,012.69) for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra during a match at Anfield.
Suarez maintained that the word he used – “negrito” – did not have racist connotations in his country, but the damage was done.
Then in April 2013 he was handed a 10-match suspension for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic during another Premier League game.
Suarez was brought back into the fold by Reds boss Brendan Rodgers following the conclusion of the ban and he returned with a sustained burst of brilliance that saw him score 31 Premier League goals and claim the players’ Footballer of the Year title.
Suarez was at his brilliant best again during Liverpool’s 6-3 victory over Cardiff in March, netting his third hat-trick of the season.
The scintillating run of form, which took Liverpool to the verge of claiming the Premier League title, rehabilitated his image in the eyes of many in England.
There was also widespread sympathy for the striker when he had to undergo an operation on a damaged meniscus on May 22.
Suarez had repeatedly said he feared suffering the knee ligament injuries that kept England’s Theo Walcott and Colombia’s Radamel Falcao out of the World Cup, but he battled back to fitness in weeks.
Before the biting now being investigated by FIFA, Suarez had been at the centre of reports that Real Madrid and Barcelona were ready to break the bank to prise Suarez away from Liverpool. Now all bets are off.
Uruguay’s win, meanwhile, kept their World Cup dream alive while sending Italy, the four-time champions, crashing out of the competition.
Diego Godin scored the winning goal nine minutes from time against Italy, for whom Claudio Marchisio was sent off, to take second place in Group D behind Costa Rica, who secured top spot with a 0-0 draw against England.
The first half was instantly forgettable although Gianluigi Buffon made a brilliant double save, first coming out to block Suarez’s effort from a tight angle and then jumping up to produce a stunning one-handed block to deny Nicolas Lodeiro.
The first half was notable more for fraying tempers and play-acting.
Stay informed, daily
Italy’s centre-back Chiellini was twice guilty of rolling around on the floor clutching his face for no obvious reason.
Italy, who would have gone through with a draw, suffered a crucial blow when Marchisio was shown a straight red for stamping down on Egidio Arevalo’s shin.
Uruguay started to turn the screw and Buffon made another brilliant one-handed stop to deny Suarez 24 minutes from time.
Chiellini and Suarez then both flopped to the ground holding their faces after a coming together, after which the Italian defender pulled his shirt off his shoulder to show the referee, believing he was Suarez’s latest bite victim.
But then Godin had the last word, heading home a corner as Italy crashed out for the second finals in a row in the group stages.
In an after-match announcement, Italy’s coach Cesare Prandelli and federation president Giancarlo Abete both resigned.
Despite Abete claiming he would try to convince Prandelli not to quit his post, the 56-year-old coach was unequivocal.
“I will not go back on my decision,” said Prandelli.
In other results, tournament sensations Costa Rica have drawn 0-0 with England in Belo Horizonte to top World Cup Group D unbeaten and leave their winless opponents bottom of the table.
The Central American outsiders had already defied the tag of minnows to record stunning wins over both Uruguay and Italy, taking them into the last 16 for the first time since their maiden World Cup in 1990.
The draw against England allowed them to secure first place, while Uruguay seized second spot with a 1-0 win against 10-man Italy in Natal.
“We’re very satisfied,” said Costa Rica’s Colombian coach Jorge Luis Pinto.
“England are one of the main teams in the world. They’re real champions, so we know it’d be a difficult game. We were able to get a point.
“I thought it was a very even game. We have proved we can play good football and this makes me feel proud.”
A youthful and much-changed England side were unable to restore pride after their earliest World Cup exit since 1958.
And in the third match overnight, a controversial last-minute penalty goal by Georgios Samaras has given Greece a place in the second round of the World Cup finals for the first time after a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast.
Samaras’s penalty robbed the African side of the place in the last 16 as they had fought back to level at 1-1 through Wilfried Bony and were in sight of the point they required to go through.
Greece took the lead in the first-half through Andreas Samaris and Samaras’s late winner ensured they accompanied group winners Colombia, who thrashed Japan 4-1, into the knockout stages.
