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Uruguay overwhelms Jordan 5-0
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Uruguay has one foot in the World Cup finals after crushing Jordan 5-0 in the first leg of their intercontinental playoff in Amman yesterday.
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez set up Maxi Pereira’s 22nd minute close-range opener and Christian Stuani made it 2-0 just before halftime.
Oscar Tabarez’ men virtually sealed their place in next year’s finals in Brazil with three second-half goals. Nicolas Lodeiro made it 3-0 on 70 minutes with a crisp strike. Cristian Rodriguez then put some extra gloss on the scoreline seven minutes later. Edinson Cavani saved the best until last with a glorious fifth from a free-kick.
It makes Wednesday’s second leg in Montevideo little more than academic.
Jordan had long spells of possession in the second half but was vulnerable on the counterattack.
The final 11 spots for next year’s finals are being played across the globe from Wellington to Mexico City to Reykjavik with 22 teams facing their final chance of glory. Twice World Cup host Mexico is hoping for a return to form against Oceania zone winner New Zealand while Iceland, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, runner-up to Nigeria in this year’s African Nations Cup, are aiming for a first appearance on the big stage.
There will also be heartbreak, and joy, for one of the world’s top players.
The pick of the four European playoffs is the tie between Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden with little to choose between the teams before they meet in Lisbon tomorrow and Stockholm next Tuesday.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter might want an end to the World Cup playoffs but the excitement, drama, tension, joy and despair they will generate over the next week are unrivalled in the two-year qualifying process. Blatter’s comment that the playoffs ought to be scrapped because they are such a “hard way to lose” is not just based on the Swiss’ worries about the players’ feelings being hurt if their teams are eliminated.
Blatter rarely says anything officially without it having a political meaning for someone, and the comments follow on from other recent remarks that Europe has too many teams in the finals at the expense of Asian and African countries.
That provoked a response from UEFA President Michel Platini, who suggested a 40-team World Cup with an extra eight teams from Asia and Africa might be the answer. However, while the two soccer chiefs try to score political points off each other, the real scoring action will unfold on the pitch in 17 highly-charged matches.
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