Uruguay’s Luis Suarez suspended for one game
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The most heated debate taking place at the World Cup on Saturday involved the punishment handed out to Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez for deliberately handling the ball in the South American team’s quarterfinal game against Ghana.
In the dying moments of the match, Suarez blocked a shot on the goal line with his hand. He was red-carded by Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca, but FIFA said Saturday that it would wait for official reports before deciding the length of Suarez’s suspension.
Later in the day, FIFA said the suspension would be only for a single game.
The 23-year-old striker will therefore miss Uruguay’s semifinal game against the Netherlands in Cape Town on Tuesday but would be available for the July 11 final, should Uruguay advance, or for the third-place match.
Suarez blocked a goal-bound shot by Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah near the end of extra time. Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan’s resulting penalty kick skipped off the top of the crossbar and Uruguay subsequently advanced to the semifinals on penalty kicks.
“It was worth being sent off in this way because at that moment there was no other choice,” Suarez said.
Uruguay Coach Oscar Tabarez defended his player.
“Yes, he stuck out his hand, but is that cheating?” Tabarez asked. “I think it was instinctive. He was thrown out. He can’t play the next match. There are consequences.
“When he handled, he didn’t know Ghana would miss the penalty” that would have won the African team the match in extra time.
Meanwhile, Uruguay announced Saturday that playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro will miss the rest of the tournament after breaking a bone in his right foot in the Ghana game. Also, defender Diego Lugano has a right knee injury that could keep him out of the semifinal.
Ronaldo escapes punishment
Cristiano Ronaldo’s action in spitting toward a television cameraman’s feet as he left the field after Portugal’s loss to Spain will go unpunished. Ronaldo, a former FIFA world player of the year, could have been warned, fined or suspended, but FIFA said it found no grounds for taking any action.
Sneijder gets his goal back
Playmaking midfielder Wesley Sneijder has been credited with both goals in the Netherlands’ 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Brazil after FIFA said it had been incorrectly listed as an own goal by Brazil’s Felipe Melo.
Sneijder has four goals in five matches, one behind tournament leader David Villa of Spain.
Meanwhile, the other Ronaldo, winner of the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 and 2002 and the tournament’s all-time leading goal scorer, has warned Melo about the hostility that he will face because of Brazil’s loss.
“Felipe Melo should not spend his holiday in Brazil,” Ronaldo wrote on his Twitter page, referring to the red card that Melo received that left the Selecao short-handed.
French still feeling the ‘bad vibes’
Coach Raymond Domenech has stepped down and has been replaced by Laurent Blanc and Jean-Pierre Escalettes resigned Friday as president of France’s soccer federation, but the French remain in meltdown mode.
On Saturday, it was winger Florent Malouda’s turn to point the finger of blame for Les Bleus’ ignominious first-round exit.
“It’s the failure of a system that led to the debacle,” the Chelsea player told L’Equipe magazine. “The players who play for Chelsea, Barcelona, [Bayern] Munich, or [Olympique] Lyon need a high-level environment to blossom. . . . Every time I was called up to the national team, it was back to negative stories and bad vibes.”
