Luis Suarez and Darwin Nunez, Liverpool forwards past and present, are through to the next round of the Copa America. By completing a perfect group stage, they condemned the USMNT to early elimination from the competition — but Suarez showed a touch of class after the game.
It was a mostly quiet night for Nunez, although it was even quieter for Suarez. Now 37 and with Uruguay already through, he spent the majority of the evening on the bench, coming on for the Liverpool man in the 89th minute.
An earlier strike from Mathias Olivera (Nunez missed the chance to break the all-time consecutive scoring record for his country) proved enough to settle the encounter. However, the USMNT was left deeply unhappy with the referee on a controversial night.
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Peruvian official Kevin Ortega was taking charge of his eighth international fixture, and US commentators have noted that his inexperience showed. The Athletic claims he looked "out of his depth."
Many of the complaints have centered around the Uruguay goal, even though the decision not to call offside appears to have been just about correct. VAR is in use at the tournament, so there's limited scope to argue with those calls.
But there were other flashpoints. Notably, Ortega failed to play advantage as Christian Pulisic appeared to be leading a breakaway, having previously allowed Uruguay to take a quick free kick while he was still showing a yellow card to USMNT player Chris Richards.
At the end of the encounter, Ortega seemingly refused to shake Pulisic's hand. But there was a classier gesture from Suarez at the full-time whistle.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker, who now plays in the US with Lionel Messi at Inter Miami, seemed to offer Pulisic some words of consolation. He then spoke to Giovanni Reyna, who had made a beeline for Suarez in an attempt to get his jersey.
In the interaction (via FOX Soccer), Suarez appears to indicate to Reyna that they can exchange jerseys inside. Perhaps he was trying to save the Borussia Dortmund man from scrutiny, with the decision to swap shirts after the untimely USMNT elimination not a universally popular one.
Unfortunately for Reyna, cameras catch just about everything these days, and the incident has become a talking point in some quarters (including Alexi Lalas' State of the Union Podcast). But on a day full of controversies and disappointments, the USMNT probably have bigger inquests to be making.
Liverpool.com says: It's been a relatively sanguine few years for Suarez, who has avoided any major controversies for some time. Racism and biting scandals will forever mar his reputation at Liverpool, but he is at least remembered fondly for his football, and it's fun seeing him and Nunez in the same attack for Uruguay.
Where Reyna perhaps showed his inexperience in so quickly and publicly seeking to swap jerseys, Suarez showed that he has been around the block a few times. But still seemingly agreeing to the swap was a touch of class.