Matchday Thread | GROUP D

Yes!
Their performance surprises everyone.

 

Ban that scumbag Suarez for the maximum two years. He clearly doesn't get it and will continue to do it. And that shit ref shouldn't ever get another game of this magnitude.

 

LOL
yeah, I'm sure those poor inexperienced Juve guys got rattled by the whole thing

feeling so sorry for them being taken advantage of like that

those uruguayans are real meanies

 

can't say I had ever seen human bitemarks like that.
They're usually like this

 

I've always wondered why Luis Suarez plays for Uruguay, and not his native country, Hungary?

 

I have no idea. The picture looks too stable to be a cell phone camera or something similar. Yet it's somewhat grainy, suggesting that it's zoomed in. My guess is that it's a cutout from a camera shot that was focused on something else. There are tons of camera shots from around the stadium that don't make it into the official footage. A WC match is one of the most photographed events on earth. I'd bet there is even better footage and FIFA will surely have access to it.

 

Thanks for admitting you're an idiot.

Exactly, Italy lacks quality up front and that's why Uruguay is the better team and won. Since when is lacking quality in one of its lines an excuse for a team not to lose?

 

Not with clothing between teeth and skin, unless the clothing fabric gets cut by the teeth. Human teeth aren't so sharp to achieve this, so the bite on the skin will likely be seen as the one that Chiellini has shown.

 

Regarding a penalty for Suarez, I feel ambivalent. On the one hand, this immediately cries out for a harsh penalty, in the other hand, this was neither in potential nor practice a brutal foul, more than anything, it was just weird. Compare that to Leonardo's skull fracturing attack on Tab Ramos in 1994 which to my knowledge led to the longest suspension during a World Cup: A whooping 8 games. So Suarez can hardly be penalized any harsher.

Though in this case, one would wish that the FIFA could force him to see a shrink. I mean Suarez obviously has some mental problems.

 

You mean, Romania? Isn't Transylvania in Romania?

 

Given that a human bite can transmit diseases (HIV, Hep B, Hep C) I think bites should be severely punished.

 

Everyone cheats to some extent. For some it is trying to gain an unfair advantage (pulling, etc) and for others it is to highlight said cheating (embellishing the contact) and everything in-between. This is a side issue to the main point raised.

The defending during this World Cup (which continues in the games played at the moment) has been pretty poor. Italy (due in part to history, style of play and compounded by their attacking weaknesses at the moment) are one of the best proponents of defending. They had the game against Uruguay locked up despite being a man down and Buffon was rarely tested. Uruguay took advantage of the immediate aftermath of the Suarez bite. Congrats to them but the tournament is worse off for losing a team who can actually defend to a good standard.

As I said before the need to belittle teams who can actually defend is short sighted and ignores the fact that defending is part of the game. I'd rather watch good defending than poor defending. I find watching a tight game between two teams who defend well is more exciting than watching a blow-out, the same where one team is throwing the kitchen sink at another, etc. I don't expect others to agree as it is a personal choice. Everyone is different. What I will say is the desire to belittle, remove or limit defending will just lead to boring games and U-S-A! sport style score-lines which is pointless.

 

This is the wrong match to use as an example, it was a cagey match where the defending usually won out. The final scoreline was 1-0 not 4-2.

 

Reportedly the disciplinary committee meeting on Luis Suarez has ended. Officials refused to give interviews and said that the ruling will be published on the official FIFA web site. I haven't found anything on the web site. Does anybody know what the ruling was? I'm expecting breaking news anytime.

 

They're not going to do anything except get Luisito a shrink.

 

Think it through.

They will first have to make a finding of whether he bit Chiellini or he didn't.

Based on what we've seen, it seems pretty incontrovertible that he did. It's not really a close call. They won't be able to find otherwise and not become a laughing stock.

Once they've found that he bit Chiellini, there are only two options--throw him out of the World Cup or allow him to play some portion of it if Uruguay progresses that far.

To allow him to play any part of the World Cup will seem like a slap on the wrist in light of Suarez's past history and his unrepentant claims that this is a normal part of the game. This would send the exact opposite of the "fair play" message FIFA is trying convey--on probably the single highest-profile disciplinary incident this WC is likely to see.

Against that, you have to weigh the loss of Suarez's goals, which hurts the quality and competitiveness of the tournament. There's also the political clout Uruguay may command within FIFA. But Uruguay's clout is almost certainly less than Italy's. And I can't see any clear allies. Who will want to stick their neck out on this, if it really isn't in dispute that Suarez bit Chiellini? As for the quality of the football, there are plenty of other attractions. It's not like Messi, or Neymar, or some other comparable poster-boy did it.

So, my prediction is that he will get a ban in excess of 4 matches. And once you've thrown him out of the WC, it's easy to extend it to make an example of him. Maybe a year.

 

I agree that it is very likely that he'll get a ban. Including, because Blatter is in trouble with UEFA and he won't want to defy an European prestigious member like Italy.

It looks like the initial report that a ban is up to 24 months got the wrong kind of 24. Now I read it's up to 24 games. Which is a lot, given that these would be FIFA official games. It could affect the entire qualifiers for Russia 2018. I think they won't go that far. The maximum ban they've applied after a World Cup incident was 8 games, for an elbow offense. I think because Suarez has done it twice in the past and got 7 club games for the first one and 10 for the second, they will probably ban him for 12 FIFA games. It would make no sense to ban him for fewer games than his first and second offenses.

 

Suarez is a more important player than Neymar, who was nothing but a luxury at Barcelona last season. Suarez on the other hand is Liverpool, one of the two great sides in English football history.

 

That's debatable. Certainly in monetary terms. And even more so as far as the success of this tournament is concerned.

Keep in mind that I'm talking purely from FIFA's perspective. They're the ones making the decision. I'm not going to comment on the relative merits of Neymar and Suarez as footballers. The disciplinary action won't really consider that. But it's naive to think it won't take into account the effect of this incident on the World Cup's brand. That could well be the determining factor.

Also, keep in mind that I'm not saying what I think should happen, only venturing an educated guess about what will happen.

 

Now I'm interested in knowing what you think should happen. You don't think Suarez deserves a ban? I think at the very least he should get a 4-game ban. He is a recidivist.

So, that's for what I think should happen. Now about what will happen, any less than that, and the FIFA brand which is at its lowest point in history with the Qatar scandal will be even further down. Remember, there are sponsors behind the tournament. That's big money. Rest assured that these people have been calling Blatter and saying "what the F are you guys doing? We have our logos all over this tournament and you keep throwing the brand to the mud!"

By the way, I'm just watching David Lettermann, and he is making fun of Suarez and soccer in general. This is a PR nightmare for FIFA. Not reacting to it is completely excluded. It would represent lost revenue since sponsors might walk away, given the ridicule. If there is one thing FIFA cares about, is money.

I think Suarez will definitely be the sacrificial lamb, regardless of the club he plays for. These are FIFA bans, not club bans. They will throw him under the bus. Well, I shouldn't say sacrificial lamb because it presumes innocence. Let's say, sacrificial wolf. That's more like it.

 

What makes you think Barcelona is less important than Liverpool? Barcelona is number 2 in the list of richest football clubs. Liverpool is number 10. Barcelona's net worth: 3.2 billion dollars. Liverpool's: 691 million dollars. Barcelona is almost five times richer than Liverpool, and has a much bigger international following. In market terms Barcelona is actually much more influential than Liverpool.

But anyway, it doesn't matter. The ban is not for club football, but for FIFA national team games. If anything, maybe Liverpool will be relieved that they won't have to relinquish Suarez for Uruguay games, if he gets a long FIFA ban.

 

Suarez is clearly #1 for Liverpool, whereas Neymar is at best #3 at Barca behind Messi and Iniesta. Beyond that, Suarez is the star figure of the EPL, whereas Neymar barely scrapes into the top ten for La Liga.

 

I'm torn. I don't know what Suarez deserves. In my mind, he did this intentionally. You have to be pretty messed up in the head to do something like that. It's not normal behavior. There's probably some history--likely involving physical abuse--that we don't know about. It's tragic because he's gifted with an incredible talent and he's hero to the Uruguayan people. His efforts to recover in time for the World Cup are very admirable. I would love to have on my team someone that's willing to handball a certain goal in the 120th minute to preserve the chance of victory, or put in the performance he did against England.

I want to find some way not to ban him. But I think he took the exact wrong approach. He should have admitted what he did, apologized, and sought leniency. If he'd done that, I'd be more inclined to give him another chance. Since he instead trivialized the incident and denied responsibility, it's really hard to see how not to ban him from the rest of the World Cup. Maybe a three match ban that would allow him to play in the Final if Uruguay make it that far, combined with a hefty fine and some worthy community service? But again, it doesn't seem quite right in light of his actions after the incident. He brought the hammer down on himself.

Also, I agree that they will ban him only from internationals (or from more internationals than league games) if there's push-back from his club.