Uruguay's Copa America odds took an unexpected hit Wednesday when coach Oscar Tabarez revealed star striker Luis Suarez will not be available tonight against Venezuela and may be out for the entire tournament.
From Yahoo:
"Luis Suarez is still in recovery, it's the 17th day, and he is still not ready. That being the case, he will not play," Tabarez told a press conference on Wednesday.
Barcelona won Sunday's Copa del Rey final 2-0 against Sevilla in extra time, but they did it mostly without all-world striker Luis Suarez, who won the Pichichi Award as La Liga's top scorer and had the best season of his career.
Suarez limped off in the second half, and was seen in tears on the bench afterward. It's hard not to feel for the guy.
Down a man after only 36 minutes and without Luis Suarez, their leading scorer, Barcelona were still able to overcome Sevilla after extra time in Sunday's Copa del Rey final thanks to a brilliant assist from Lionel Messi to Jordi Alba. Neymar added a second goal in the 122nd minute off of another great pass from Messi.
Barcelona, recently crowned La Liga champions, faced off against Sevilla, recent winners of the UEFA Europa League, at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in the Spanish capital of Madrid.
The Uruguay National Team have a successful relationship with the Copa America. Nobody has won the competition more than La Celeste, who have lifted the trophy on 15 occasions. That said, last year was desperately disappointing for them as Uruguay was knocked out in the quarterfinals by eventual champions Chile. Despite that, Uruguay has to be considered one of the favorites to win the Copa America Centenario this summer.
When Pep Guardiola moved Lionel Messi from the right wing to the middle of the park, he unleashed a monster. The fist instance of the move resulted in a 6-2 destruction of arch rivals Real Madrid. It took a bit of time for the position to become Messi’s primary one but, once it did, world-beating results followed. Have you ever heard of Lionel Messi’s 91 goal year in 2012? Yeah, that happened when he was playing striker.
Luis Suarez is in the midst of his greatest season as a professional. He’s scored 56 goals in 51 appearances for Barcelona and could end up with the Pichichi, awarded to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. At only 29 years of age, the Barca striker should be at the top of his game for some time yet.
Luis Suarez’s blatant handball from the 2010 World Cup continues to be a subject of debate amongst soccer’s lawmakers. Suarez committed the offense in the closing stages of a quarter-final match against Ghana, giving Uruguay the slightest hopes of staving off elimination.
Asamoah Gyan sent the resulting penalty over the bar for Ghana, and Uruguay went through to the semis after a shoot-out victory. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is now looking into ways to prevent that situation from ever occurring again.
Barcelona forward Luis Suárez surprised the world with statements he made to the European TV network Helden TV, in which he said he did not feel qualified to play for the Catalan club.
The Uruguayan is currently one of the figureheads of the FC Barcelona team. He is La Liga’s top scorer with 35 goals and joint top assistant with 14 assists, tied with his teammate Lionel Messi.
Barcelona have been in a bad way (for them) recently. They sandwiched two league losses around a stunning loss to Atletico Madrid that bounced them from the Champions League (after having won the first leg). This was the first time Barcelona had lost three games in a row since 2003. The momentum changed Wednesday, when Luis Suarez apparently decided he had had enough, and took his frustration out on the hapless Deportivo la Coruna, to the tune of four goals and three assists.
The final day of the Champions League quarterfinals kicked off today with Barcelona playing away at Atletico Madrid and Benfica hosting Bayern Munich. Barcelona were ahead 2-1 on aggregate heading into the match, but Madrid scored in the 36th minute to go ahead on aggregate due to the away goal tie-breaker.
Griezmann headed home a cross after Jordi Alba could not fully clear the ball. The Frenchman would add a penalty to take a 3-2 aggregate lead in the 88th minute after a handball by Andres Iniesta. The final score was 2-0.