"JOGOS DOS DESPERADOS"

Story by Patrick Kamanga (pgkamanga73@gmail.com)

JOGOS DOS DESPERADOS!

On winning the “Jogos dos desperados” or “Game of the desperate” as christened by the Brazilian press, Uruguay proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were the more desperate of the two teams as they battled to overcome a late England surge to win 2-1.

They desperately needed Luiz Suarez back, and it paid dividends.

Suarez had had surgery on his left knee to repair a torn meniscus a month prior, immediately the English Premier League season concluded. 
He desperately worked triple overtime to regain his fitness, and it worked. 
For him to have barely regained full fitness and score two spectacular goals in a crunch game! Amazing! That was testament to his talent, football intelligence, his mental strength and determination but most of all, his passion for the game! 

For much of the week prior to this game, the English press in particular had been very critical about Wayne Rooney who until this game had gone 11 World cup games without scoring, since making his debut at the 2006 World cup. 
He finally got the monkey off his back with England's consolation goal.

 

In the last game against Italy, he covered every blade of grass on the pitch trying to build up play or unruffle the Italian defense but to no avail. 
Rooney could not have been faulted for a lack of effort. What cost England that game, as it did against Uruguay was the defense. 

England Captain Steven Gerard, as anchorman who's primary role was to protect the defense, was guilty of two critical and costly errors that swung the game in Uruguay's way. 

The England defense looked shaky throughout as they did against Italy and for Uruguay’s first goal in particularly, they were entirely complicit to the fact!  

Suarez burrowed his diminutive self through Gerard at the center circle, then slid a diagonal pass to Edinson Cavani on the far left, as he made a bee-line straight for the box surrounded by four out of the six England players who tracked back. Cavani charged up field and without hesitation lobed a dipping ball into the box and found Suarez beyond Phil Jagielka, the last of the six, and Joe Hart in goal. 
Suarez had the time and space to pick out his spot, heading the ball to the far post. 

6 England defenders against 2 Uruguayan strikers! Seriously! These are fundamental errors that a team of England's stature and caliber should not be committing, and at this level?

Suarez’s second came courtesy of a Steven Gerard intended clearance turned miscued header that swung backward toward goal and found Suarez with acres of space and with one defender, Phil Jagielka again closing in on him. 
He controlled the ball with his right foot, took the one and only look at Joe Hart to find his bearing and never took his eyes off the ball. He then unleashed a powerful volley into the top corner of the net.  
The ensuing celebratory scene of the Uruguayans piling up in a human pyramid on top of Suarez at the corner flag, was admirable.


 

Coincidentally, both hero and villain play along side each other at Liverpool. Their emotions could have been summed as anything but different, with Gerrard cutting out a forlorn figure obviously on his last World cup wondering what could have been, and Suarez in seventh heaven.



One player would have made all the deference to the England team. Roy Hodgson will rue having disregarded picking former England Captain John Terry in particular and experienced left back Ashley Cole.

The two, together with central defender Gary Cahill formed the core of the Chelsea F.C defense, which as the meanest back line in the league only conceded 27 goals, the least at the just concluded English Premier League season. 

Irrespective of whatever scandal Terry had been involved in prior to his unceremonious dismissal from the England team a few years ago, he still is England’s best central defender and in the interest of “Queen and Country” should have been recalled.

Recalling a controversial but important player to a national team for an important course such as the World cup campaign is not unusual.

That brings to mind Paolo Rossi’s recall to the Italian team that went on to win the World cup in 1982. He’d served a three year ban, later commutated to two, having been implicated in the infamous Totonero bribery and match fixing scandal. 

A widely unpopular move at the time, a pardon by Italian President the late Sandro Pertini, and the insistence of the Italian coach the late Enzo Berzot opened the door for his return to the national team.

To cap this remarkable story of redemption, he scored Italy's opening goal at the World cup final game against West Germany to guarantee Italy triuphed for it's third World title.
  
With the World title in hand, Rossi topped the goal scoring charts with 6 goals and bagged the “Golden Boot” as the top scorer, the Golden Ball as the best player, and is one of the only three players to have ever won the three awards simultaneously emulating Brazil's Garrincha in 1962, and Argentina's Mario Kempes in 1978!

 

Italy’s triumph was synonymous with Rossi as it would have been impossible to achieve what they did without having recalled him.
He was to win further accolades as the European Player of the Year and World Player of the Year awards later the same year.

With England eliminated via Costa Rica's win over Italy, in hind sight looking at the big picture and considering how daunting England’s chances were with that shambolic defense, denying John Terry a recall because of a silly scandal now seems all the more trivial!