DPA/Rio de janerio
Any match between Colombia and Uruguay would evoke images of their two greatest stars, Radamel Falcao Garcia and Luis Suarez.
For different reasons, however, the two world class strikers will not be playing in the World Cup’s round of 16 today in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium. And the two teams enter the crucial match with very different mindsets.
Colombia are hugely confident on the back of their three first-round wins and have got used to playing without the injured Falcao. The 28-year-old Monaco striker tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in January, and while coach Jose Pekerman waited for him to the last, Falcao did not make it to Brazil.
Uruguay just scraped through to the round of 16 after losing against Costa Rica the only match they played without the 27-year-old Suarez in Brazil.
In the second of the two games he did play, Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini, and FIFA punished him with a nine-game ban that will sideline him from the rest of the World Cup.
Back in the tournament for the first time since France 1998, Colombia have done very well without Falcao.
They beat Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan in the first round, qualified for the round of 16 after just two matches. While they scored one goal less than group stage top scorers the Netherlands, they also conceded one goal less than the Dutch.
If Colombia are missing Falcao, it does not show. Midfielder James Rodriguez, 22, has stepped up as the team’s leader and scored three goals, one in each of Colombia’s games so far. Striker Jackson Martinez and midfielder Juan Guillermo Cuadrado have also done well.
“This Colombia team is hungry for glory, we want to make history, we want to go far,” Martinez warned ahead of the match against Uruguay.
Uruguay are in a very different position. They attained the round of 16 in their third group-round match, against Italy, and have spent all their time since then worrying about Suarez.
By the end of that match, Suarez’s bite was the major issue, an investigation was soon launched, and the decision to ban the striker came Thursday, just a few hours ahead of Uruguay’s flight to Rio.
Uruguay players were upset about their teammate’s exit, but they vowed it would make them stronger.
“Nothing will stop us. We will keep going with humility, unity, commitment, acknowledging our mistakes and with our head always held high,” captain Diego Lugano wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
“More united than ever,” young defender Jose Maria Gimenez said on Twitter. The attacking pair of Suarez and Edinson Cavani worked well against England, where Suarez scored a brace, and while it was less powerful against Italy, it would have been a threat for any rival in the World Cup’s knock-out stages.
Bringing back veteran Diego Forlan, 35, who was voted the best player of the 2010 World Cup, is an alternative to Suarez, but it costs Uruguay a lot of their punch, at least on paper.
Uruguay are traditionally a gritty team that grows when times are tough. They are an experienced side which has been known to come out on top against theoretically better rivals.
Colombia are almost the opposite: a young team with no World Cup experience prior to Brazil 2014. And yet they have so far handled the pressure of being on the largest stage in the world of football very well, and they have the support of thousands of their fans in the stands.
In 1950, Uruguay beat hosts Brazil in Rio to lift the second World Cup trophy in their history, in what became known as the Maracanazo.
Beating Colombia on Saturday would be a lesser achievement, but it would allow Uruguay to bounce back after the departure of their fallen hero Suarez.