Luis Suarez, the hero of Uruguay's World Cup-saving victory against England on Thursday, is in the spotlight today for all the right reasons. He returned hastily from a torn meniscus and played with the verve and energy of a madman, scoring twice and comprising all of Uruguay's offense.
The talk now is of his speedy recovery, toughness, and ability to shake off a sizable amount of rust on the biggest stage against staunch competition. Suarez surely is welcoming the positivity, since his career's been marred several times by ugly incidents.
His woes began in the 2010 World Cup, where he made a heads-up play that worked out for the Uruguayans, but also showed blatant disrespect for the rules of soccer and also for sportsmanship. Ghana had a clear scoring chance to defeat Uruguay when Suarez stuck his hands out and swatted away a shot. He earned a red card and was ejected, but the Ghanians failed to convert the penalty shot Suarez's squad stayed alive.
That was followed by two instances of Suarez biting opponents on the field. Once he bit a player on the shoulder during an altercation in sneak attack fashion; the second time was in the middle of a play.
He also has been involved in multiple instances of racist behavior, once earning a suspension for taunting Manchester United's Patrice Evra about his race and color. Another time Suarez was caught on video during a post-match handshake purposely skipping over Evra as if he never learned his lesson.
Soccer is no different than many other sports though-talent overrides all. Once that second goal got past English goalkeeper Joe Hart to grant Uruguay victory, all was forgotten. If he keeps up his goal-scoring ways, Suarez will remain beloved.
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