England lose 2-1 to Uruguay in 2014 Fifa World Cup

Luis Suarez grabbed a magnificent double to blow away the English dream of a good 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup. He delayed a run into the box, deceiving to go from centre to his left and then checked his run to the right to direct a Cavani delivery across the body of Joe Hart. England failed to win the ball in midfield, allowed Uruguay passage through the centre and refrained from challenging the ball before it reached Cavani on the left. With the attention of four English players, the striker had time to control, look up and pick up the run of Suarez who had three men guarding him; Cahill, Baines and Hart.  

The man who recently underwent knee surgery needed just two touches to finish off a Steven Gerrard flick on in the second half. Muslera cleared a long ball and Captain Fantastic’s jumped did not elevate him enough to make the relevant contact with the ball. Suarez lurked behind and outpaced Cahill, looked up to see the position of the goalkeeper, got his eyes on the ball, adjusted his stride and concentrated on the technique of striking the ball with his arms wide for balance.  He hit the ball hard in the middle, as if to dissect it into two hemi-spheres. Hart tried to spread his body across the goal by advancing and narrowing the angle, but he could not even see the ball whistle past him.

Looking at the body of the whole match, Uruguay had a game plan to deny England’s youthful team any space to settle on the ball and the time to think. They pressed hard high on the pitch and reduced the space by moving quickly to press when the ball moved from one player to the next. They packed the midfield, doubled up in marking, and got as many men behind the ball as possible. They were in ‘take-no-prisoners’ mood and were lighting fast in transition and were always first on both the first and second balls.

England started the match hoping for a calculative affair. They were taken unawares as they got intimidated and denied any space to play. They became ‘uncomposed’ and gave away the ball quite easily. The defence panicked and threw themselves at the ball and in flew into tackles. The wingbacks found pockets on the right and more so on the left with Baines. The frustration over failure to construct any methodical attacks caused anxiety and desperation in preparation zone as the midfielders tended not to track down their men as well as the third man running.

The marking was very bad and many crosses found their way to the penalty box as the wide men arrived late from attacking duties. However, the wide man run forward proved useful as Glen Johnson supplied Wayne Rooney with a tap-in in between Suarez’s double. Cahill robbed the Liverpool striker of the ball and quickly passed to Steven G who played with Daniel Sturridge who turned well and fed the overlapping Johnson on the right. The right back took his man on, darted in and out into the penalty box and passed to Rooney who timed his run perfectly and finished with aplomb. Rooney had a good match, forcing a fantastic save from the keeper and hitting a post with header from a foot out.

England could not string passes together and had no rhythm at all as they could not cope with the pace and intimidation of the South Americans. Their attacking moves out of the midfield and the entries into the final third lacked urgency and pace. Besides being too slow in mounting attacks, they were guilty of taking too long to deliver crosses too, allowing Uruguay to regroup and take good defensive positions and shape. As a result, Uruguay had sufficient personnel to deal with any threats posed, particularly forcing early shots that went off target, were weak or went straight to Muslera.

It must be said that Rooney finally got a Fifa World Cup goal.       

Uruguay beaten 3-1 by Costa Rica in 2014 Fifa World Cup

It looked like a Goliath versus David affair from the onset, yet there was a side of Costa Rica to see. They were eager to push forward without fear and make a statement in a motivated way. They had made 5 entries into the attacking third by the 10^th minute. The nervousness in defence was obvious as they were to concede consecutive free-kicks including the one that led to the penalty converted by Cavani.

Uruguay played with a lot of width and tried to break the 5-men defence with crisp passing. Wasteful finishing by both Cavani and Diego Forlan counted for nothing until the rugby tackle on Lugano. Cavani slotted the ball in the right bottom corner of the net despite the goalkeeper guessing right. Thereafter, the former champions’ attempts were restricted to outside the penalty area. Despite that drawback, Costa Rica showed character by their positive response pushing for an equaliser. Their 1-5-3-2 coped well with the conventional 1-4-4-2 of Costa Rica.

The second half started with an injected pace in the Costa Rican attack as they ran at the Uruguayan defence. An exchange of passes on the right wing and the resultant cross eluded the Uruguay defence and found an unmarked Joe Campbell who controlled the ball and rifled a canon past Muslera to equalise. It was one such run in the middle of the defence that led to a free-kick that was neatly taken to the far post and headed home by Duarte for a 2-1 lead within minutes. It took courage as the low ball attracted a boot of a defender in a failed bid to clear.

Thenceforth, Uruguay threw kitchen sinks and all at the minnows who did not crack under pressure. They managed the lead well, composed themselves and frustrated their more illustrious opponents in midfield as they curled into a 1-5-4-1 formation. The frantic defending got into the nerves of Uruguay as they lost their cool and composure.

A ball lost on the right side of midfield was passed down the line and then played through to Urena who raced into the box attraction the attention of Muslera who tried to narrow the angle. The attacker raised his head, saw the onrushing keeper and tucked in a low ball past him to hammer the final nail in the coffin of Uruguay. Adding salt to injury, Uruguay lost a man at the death as a momentary rush of blood in the head left the referee with no option but to send him off.

It turned out as it looked, a David versus Goliath, and the result was no different from the actual ancient events, David killing Goliath.