Suarez leaves England in tatters
Striker delivers twice in Uruguay’s 2-1 win to send Three Lions to brink
SAO PAULO — The photo made newspapers around the soccer-loving world: an unsmiling Luis Suarez cloaked in a grey Adidas hoodie, out of surgery to repair the damaged meniscus in his left knee and seated in a wheelchair, being lifted into a van outside a hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Back then, initial fears were that he might be wearing a brace at World Cup time, not scoring one. That was 28 days ago. Thursday, the image captured by a battalion of pitch-side photographers was vastly different: Suarez, down on his knees, exultant, arms outstretched to take in the heavens, the latest in a long line to break English hearts.
Sprinting onto a misdirected flick by Three Lions skipper and club mate Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool star buried as hot be hind’ keeper Joe Hart in the 85th minute, his second goal of a remarkable comeback from injury, to provide Uruguay with a crucial 2-1 victory to leave England’s hopes hanging by a thread.
The man hadn’t played a competitive match since May 11th.
Strikers, the great ones anyway, are many things. Ruthless. Pitiless. Cunning. Born with an innate sense of occasion, of drama. They’re highly paid sneak-thieves in the night, here and there, come and gone.
“I’ve dreamed of these goals,” a delighted Suarez said afterwards. “We suffered a lot. But we won, and that’s what really matters. Now we’ve got a strong challenge ahead and we have to play Italy, which will be a harder match.
“And to those who criticized us, there you have it.”
Outside of Liverpool, for some of his more notorious on-pitch antics, Suarez is viewed as a scoundrel, a cad, a villain.
Thursday won’t have done his popularity rating any favours.
“I thought we controlled Suarez well,’’ a downcast England manager Roy Hodgson said. “He did very, very well to get away to the back post for the first goal. The second goal was an unfortunate flick off Steven Gerrard’s head. Coming off an injury, he was quieter than we’re used to seeing him, but two chances came his way. As a top player, he took those chances and probably ended our chances.
“We’re more than disappointed — we’re devastated. We believed we could do enough today to get a result from this game. To concede the second goal we did was an unbelievable blow.”
That second strike did come out of nothing, and at a moment in time when Uruguay seemed to be on the ropes.
Suarez, absent from the shock 3-1 loss to Costa Rica, had already begun fashioning a compelling story, opening scoring on 39 minutes, nodding a lovingly weighted Edinson Cavani chip beyond Hart’s reach, drifting backward to create enough space between himself and defender Phil Jagielka.
The minutes ticked relentlessly away. Then it was left to England’s Wayne Rooney — back in his favoured patch of central territory — to snatch the headlines from Suarez, however briefly.
The under-fire Rooney had already squandered three prime chances, thumping a Gerrard corner off the crossbar with his noggin, curling a free kick inches wide with goalkeeper Fernando Muslera motionless and striking a left-footed shot far too centrally when it seemed far easier to score, before breaking his World Cup duck on 75 minutes.
An ambitious foray up the right flank by defender Glen Johnson set up Rooney for a tap-in.
Yet once again, England’s aspirations lie in tatters. More shots on and at net on Thursday. A commanding 62 per cent of the possession. But those are hollow statistics for a nation that has waited nearly a half-century for a major tournament win.
“It was a quiet dressing room, as you’d imagine,’’ Hart said. “We played two very good games, but that doesn’t mean anything.’’
A draw Friday between Italy and Costa Rica or an outright win by the South Americans and England is once again booking an early flight home, left to sift through the wreckage of another World Cup gone bad.
Styles change, players come and go, world soccer power shifts, but being the poor kid with his nose pressed up against the glass of the toy store window at Christmas seems to be their lot in life. They’re destined to suffer.
“Where does this leave us?’’ Hodgson sighed. “I think in both the games we’ve showed some elements of playing some good football. The team is making progress, but results decide everything and both results have been negative.
“We need Italy to win their next two games by a lot of goals and we need to win against Costa Rica by the requisite number of goals.
“Our chances are unbelievably slim.’’
And Uruguay’s are suddenly very much alive, thanks to the man in the photo sitting in the wheelchair less than a month ago, the guy who broke down in tears at game’s end and was hoisted in the air by his jubilant teammates.
“I was suffering from cramps more than 10 minutes before my second goal,” Suarez said. “But something told me I couldn’t leave the pitch.’’