Luis Suarez: What next for troubled Liverpool striker?

bbc.com ^ | 26 June 2014 | McNulty

[Berlin_Freeper]

The shockwaves will have been felt from the Maracana in Rio, to Melwood back in Liverpool, as Luis Suarez received a four-month ban from all football-related activity and was suspended for Uruguay's next nine matches.

Uruguay's talisman has been removed from their World Cup reckoning for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini and Liverpool will be without arguably the Premier League's finest player until November.

Fifa needed to act swiftly and decisively and has done so on an unprecedented scale at a World Cup.

[Berlin_Freeper]

After 48 games and 136 goals, the group stages of the 2014 World Cup finals drew to a close last night.

It is already abundantly clear this tournament will become known as one of the most exciting ever World Cups.

One of the main reasons the last two weeks have been so enthralling is most of the world’s leading players have turned up and delivered but which of these players has shone the most?

[wideawake]

(1) You are right. This is a slap on the wrist. He should have a lifetime ban, or a year at the very least.

(2) It looks like, given the schedule, he will miss nine internationals and eight or nine EPL matches. So it's more than last time in total, but not as bad as last time in EPL terms. He probably cost both Uruguay and Liverpool any chance at a championship.

[Scoutmaster]

He was punished more that twice as many games for this bite.

His last punishment was ten games of English FA club football and didn't affect the Uruguay international team.

This punishment is eight FIFA international matches for Uruguay, plus four months of ban of any soccer-related activities. Assuming the four months began yesterday, that's nine Premier League games, three Champions League games, and one Champions Cup game. All of those are in addition to the eight Uruguay international games, so it's a total of 21 games.

The games other than the eight international games:

16 August - Liverpool v Southampton
23 August - Man City v Liverpool
30 August - Tottenham v Liverpool
13 September - Liverpool v Aston Villa
16/17 September - Champions League group match
20 September - West Ham v Liverpool
23/24 September - Capital One Cup third round match
27 September - Liverpool v Everton
30 September/1 October - Champions League group match
4 October - Liverpool v West Brom
18 October - QPR v Liverpool
21/22 October - Champions League group match
25 October - Liverpool v Hull

[RayChuang88]

FIFA should have thrown the book at Luis Suarez and banned him from all professional soccer games until the start of the 2015-2016 European soccer season in August 2015--in short, the ban ends on August 1, 2015.

Losing one season's pay from Liverpool F.C. and possibly a lot of sponsorship money will make him think twice about doing more antics on the pitch.

[BeadCounter]

Thomas Muller the diver deserves no better, should have been kicked out of the World Cup as well. Dirty Cheater, but what do you expect from that team?

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— Goals and controversy all adding up to possibly the greatest World Cup of my lifetime -—

Best one I can remember, and I’ve watched since they’ve been televised. Fortunately, it’s the best I’ve seen the US. They can now play with anyone.

Also noteworthy is the fact that a third of the teams in the final 16 are from CONCAF and Africa.

[BeadCounter]

Yesterday, there was the story of Ghana's payment coming in on a jet, already Nigeria has missed a practice because of unpaid wages.

World Cup 2014: Nigeria boycott training in money row

[safeasthebanks]

For all the brew-ha-ha about getting goal line technology, I will continue to say that instituting a strict, after-match disciplinary system (with real, impactful punishments) that also uses video replays is just as critical given the current nature of the game.

The diving and excessive dramatics for any little contact is a major blight on the game (and you know I'm a big fan).

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— I will continue to say that instituting a strict, after-match disciplinary system (with real, impactful punishments) that also uses video replays is just as critical given the current nature of the game. -—

Makes sense. What about giving coaches two replay appeals, as in football? It would slow down the game, but penalty-area fouls are critical.

[safeasthebanks]

I'm open to anything that works, of course. But in my suggestion, I was strictly talking about an after-game review, with the key point being that I don't want action taken for just dives or violent play off the ball, I want it for the excessive hysterics from players even where there may have been actual contact and/or foul committed.

I also think another ref (or two) would help with this, but that's a dual edge sword as you may end up with another guy on the field who thinks he's getting paid by the tweet.

[BeadCounter]

Barcelona still want Suarez

Suarez may have trimmed off a lot of his transfer cost with those acts. Liverpool should let him go.

[BeadCounter]

It's hard to access the penalties that should be dealt out in soccer/footy. I'm a fan of Mario Balotelli but this challenge? Incidental contact in the NFL?

Which would you rather have, a bite on the shoulder that doesn't break the skin or being challenged in this manner? That's not a defense of Suarez, obviously he deserves a ban, I'm pointing out that sometimes it's difficult to actually determine what is worse. You have dangerous or wreckless tackles all of the time. Suarez brought the game into disrepute though with such actions.

Joey Barton plays devil's advocate on Luis Suarez's bite in Uruguay vs. Italy

I wish Italy had gone through and were playing Colombia but without their players who received their 2nd yellow card and thus, would have been suspended from the math, Balotelli and Marchisio.

[al_c]

[dfwgator]

I saw that laser showing off of Akinfeev’s jersey.

I wouldn’t want to be that guy if Putin finds out who did it.

[dfwgator]

Back in the 70s stuff like this went on all the time without so much as a yellow card being given, it was a rough game back then.

[dfwgator]

Go USA...Beat the Phlegms.

[Berlin_Freeper]

The Germans Are Young, in Their Prime, And Really, Really Good
In the fall of 2000, 11-year-old soccer wunderkind Thomas Muller left TSV Pahl, the local team near his hometown of Weilheim in Oberbayern,1 and joined Bayern Munich’s youth academy. That same year, 22-year-old Miroslav Klose was co-leading the Bundesliga club FCK in goals, becoming a star in his own right. Fourteen years later, they’re both on the same Germany squad, with Muller chasing the World Cup goals record that Klose just tied. In Germany, one generation is being eclipsed by the next.

... Germany has been nearly this good for four World Cups running. It finished in the top three in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups, a feat that’s usually only accomplished when a country is experiencing a “golden generation” of talent. That’s when a rare confluence of gifted footballers simultaneously spring forth to lead their national team to glory. Germany had one of those over the past decade, with forwards such as Klose and Lukas Podolski, defenders Philipp Lahm, Arne Friedrich and Per Mertesacker, and midfielders Michael Ballack and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

By the time such a group is in its third World Cup cycle, though, its heyday is almost always over. Indeed, Ballack and Friedrich are retired, and the rest are either on the wrong side of 30 — Klose, while still on the national team, is ancient at 36 — or rapidly approaching it. But this year’s German side isn’t being carried by the dimming stars of days past. Rather, it has produced an entirely new golden generation, right on the heels of the previous one, and led by the likes of Muller.

[Berlin_Freeper]

How to Get Rid of Phlegm

[Berlin_Freeper]

Müllered
Once again, it was Müller who made the difference. The Bayern man led the Germany attack yet again, convincing Joachim Löw even to leave the World Cup's all-time top goalscorer Miroslav Klose on the bench. Even when the SS Lazio forward was introduced, Müller remained on the field, so vital he has become to the Germany game.

"We're aiming high and we have to carry on the way we're going, with hard work and team spirit, " said the 24-year-old who is playing in his second World Cup finals. After ending the last one as the tournament top-scorer, he is on course to repeat that feat in South America and become the first man in history to win consecutive World Cup Golden Boot Awards.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Muller: It's about more than goals
Germany forward Thomas Muller says there is only one trophy he wants to take back home with him this summer - and it is not the Golden Boot.

...However, the Bayern Munich player has said that the number of goals he scores personally does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

"I won the Golden Boot four years ago and, to be honest, I wouldn't know where to put another one," he joked at a press conference.

"It is never my goal to be the top scorer, but rather to be world champion. Of course, it's nice to see your name at the top, but that's no big deal. There is another title which is far more valuable."