It's been a tough week for Uruguay, so much so that I'll refrain from the usual juvenile orc references. First, they unluckily tumbled out of the Copa America on penalties after twice coming back against Brazil. According to Uruguayan coach Oscar Tavares, this was largely to do with the Uruguayans getting a crummy locker room. Sounds a bit implausible to me, but hey, I'm no tactician.
Tonight, the USA bounced them out of the U-20 World Cup 2-1 in extra time. The Uruguayans were quite unlucky here, as they really had the better of the play. Choosing a high tempo game to harry the US on the ball worked really well, and there were stretches where they really seemed to dominate. But the effort they expended left them a bit gassed in extra time, and without the really dangerous Luis Suarez on the field, they didn't offer as much of a threat after the US equalized.
Best moment: when Cardaccio got yellow carded for essentially just being an unbearable dickweed. Such a shame the ref didn't spot his elbow on Szetala (which Danny totally embellished, by the way) or whatever it was he did after the whistle that so incensed Michael Bradley.
An ugly win for the US, but you kind of knew that a letdown was coming, I think. Hope the injury to Altidore is not as serious as it seemed.
3 comments:
It's amazing to me how every team Ururugay spits out--no matter the year, no matter the tournament, age group, coaching, etc.--has the exact same infuriating blend of shameless flopping, nasty tackling, and general off-the-ball ... well, you said it best, unbearable dickweedery. Do they have academies in this sort of thing down there?
Grat job with the blog, Alex. Keep it up.
Great, rather.
Thanks for the kind words. It's funny... I remember thinking during about the 60th minute in the US game, "you know, Uruguay have played this one pretty fairly." Then of course, they took the lead, whereupon the flopping began. And then the US equalized, so cue the whining, desperate tackling, etc.
It's a shame they couldn't have taken a cue from their fans, who generated a great atmosphere in the stadium, and who seemed to be having a great time even when they were losing.
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