You are Felipe Melo. You are a Brazilian soccer god. You are 27 years old, in the prime of your sporting career and a fixture on the world's #2 ranked national team. You come from a country known for, among other things, beautiful women and many of them throw themselves at you if you do so much as blink in their direction. You have been paid good money, no- damn good money, to play this game in such places as Mallorca, Spain in the Mediterranean and Fiorentina in Tuscany, Italy. Oh yeah, it is good being Felipe Melo.
After nursing an injury in the round of 16, you turn the quarterfinal early with a brilliant, long, bounding pass up the center of the field directly into the stride of Robinho, your world class goal scorer who does what he does, and your team leads in this highly anticipated clash 1:0. A few more solid defensive plays and pinpoint passes and the halftime whistle sounds. Your Brazil team leads, thanks to you Felipe Melo. Bask in it.
The second half begins and suddenly you find yourself making more defensive plays than pinpoint passes. Your whole team is on its heels as the Netherlands push for an equalizer. You put yourself in position as a harmless ball is struck into the box from some 30 yards out. You set and raise to clear. You feel an impact on your left shoulder, not unexpected, all sorts of collisions in the box. No whistle, the ball glances off your head.
You look to see who the player was you collide with. To your horror it is your keeper, did you not hear him clear you? Did he even call for it? You look to see what happened to the ball...it is in the net. Oh NO! Later called an own goal by you. Ugh. Being Felipe Melo not what it was 30 minutes ago.
But you press on, lots of futbol to play yet. Minutes later, you find yourself unable to do anything on the second goal against for your team, and can only watch as Wesley Sneijder puts you behind for the first time since you arrived in South Africa. It's go time now, but now the Dutch players are falling more easily and staying down longer. Your squad needs an equalizer and this guy in orange won't ...get... UP!.
You put a lean into a player in your area of the field attempting to free the ball. He crumples easily under your light push. Another obvious flop, more obvious time wasting, is what you think. Then you stop thinking. A stomp on his thigh and you know it before the referee gets to you. Red card, match over. You leave the field alone, hit the showers alone and 20 minutes later your mates join you. You guys are headed home after a shocker of a 45 minutes.
Your coach defends you post-game. "It would be unjust to blame Felipe Melo now. When we win, everyone shares the credit. It's the same when we lose," Dunga states. But you can't help but feel to blame. An own goal, an embarrassing loss of composure, your World Cup ends in shame. This morning it is not as good being Felipe Melo.
Now you are Luis Suarez. You are a Uruguayan soccer god. You are 23 years old and have averaged nearly a goal a game for club and country combined this season. You are maybe the most lethal goalscorer in the world right now and are one of the hottest names in this year's World Cup. You are young, you are good-looking and you rock at your job. Being Luis Suarez is good.
After scoring a goal that will forever live on the 2010 World Cup highlight reel to knockout South Korea in the rain last Saturday, you take the field for the challenge of Ghana's stiff defense. After a slow start, you begin to find more space and open chances in the second half. You miss a near-sitter. You miss a header. Your teammate nails a free kick and you find yourself in an extra time battle for advancement. The games is not going as planned for you, but your team is right there in it.
It's late, you know the referee may blow his whistle and send this to a shootout at anytime. A Ghana player is taken down, and you are tasked with coming back from your usual forward position to help defend the goal. You are positioned along with a teammate right on the goal line. Last line of defense, if it somehow avoids the keeper, you need to figure out how to keep it out.
The kick is hit, your keeper misses. Frantically, players try to move the ball out of danger, but instead, Ghana gets off a shot. It's coming right at you. You stick out your leg. Denied! Luis Suarez- at your service. Before you can even feel good about that stop however, the ball is headed your direction again. A teammate jumps, but is unable to reach the high header. You are behind him. You also can not reach with your head, and even if you could, no time to leap now.
So you make like a volleyball player. Raise your hands and keep the ball out of the net and the hopes of Uruguay on life support. The referee does what he must, as you have done what you must, and shows red. Time for you to head for the showers. No matter, your team will be joining you shortly, a PK is nearly always converted and this taker, Gyan? He's hit on two already this Cup. Tears well up, the Cup run likely over, you head up the ramp for the locker room.
An odd reaction coming from your teams supporters. What just happened? You shoot a glance back to see, and are elated to see that Gyan has missed. Your handball, your ejection, your possible future suspension had saved the game for your team. You are once again the hero, this time not for scoring a goal, but preventing it! You catch the shootout, which your team wins easily. They carry you off the field on their shoulders. Fans, teammates, coaches praise your timely disobedience to the laws of the game. This morning, it is truly great to be Luis Suarez.
Two of the world's best players. Two well-deserved and well earned red cards. Two totally different experiences. This was Friday at the Cup.
NOTES: Yesterday's games were as entertaining as any two games of the tournament, and the Ghana Uruguay contest has ousted USA-Algeria in terms of dramatics. One of the most dramatic finishes to a sporting event in a long time. I'll start there.
-Hard to comment on anything other than the finish. Loved the Ghana strike that went down Aisle A while the goalie was looking up aisle B. Loved the Forlon free kick that Jubalani'd it way around and over the keeper before ducking under the crossbar. Great goals.
-Loved Suarez's headiness on that last play. Hated that it cost Ghana the game. What is the "American" sports equivalent? I say it is the equal of a player in American football coming off the bench and tackling an opponent inside the 5-yard-line. Sure it was illegal, sure the player will be ejected, but who cares. He's down and now the other team has to convert one more play to score. Could you imagine if this happened? I think they would award a TD. I think Ghana should have been awarded a goal. Instead, as chip shot as a PK is, they still had to convert one more play when they already had.
News Saturday morning that FIFA will look into a longer suspension for Suarez. Yeah, I'm totally buying that. I will hate to not see him play in Uruguay's future matches, but that kind of blatant foul deserves more consideration. He intentionally disreguarded a rule that altered the rightful outcome of the game, and this deserves some consideration. If no suspension is given this time, at least a future course of action can be established.
-In yesterday's preview, i stated Forlon and Suarez as the difference, that came pretty true. I never would have guessed as to how Suarez would make that difference though.
-I was very entertained by the Brazil-Netherlands game. The skill on both sides was amazing, almost to the point of canceling out each other entirely.
-The first two goals of the game were scored as a result of woeful defending. The game-winner though I liked. The announcers were making a big deal of the fact that no Brazilian seemed interested in the ball, and I agree to a point, but the kick was well-taken and surprising in its direction and flight path. Three perfect touches into the top corner, hard to stop that.
-Brazil totally lost composure after giving that first goal. Their challenges were sloppier and their touches on the ball not as deft moving forward. That was unexpected. I did not think Brazil would crack under pressure, but they did. Late on in the game they seemed more concerned with the Dutch actions than getting the tie for extra time. Disappointing.
