Team of the International Round: Luis Suarez shines as Uruguay crush Chile

Goal.com picks the best in show from Friday and Saturday's Euro 2012 play-offs, World Cup 2014 qualifiers and international friendlies, with the Liverpool man taking centre stage

13 Nov 2011 10:18:00

More On :  Colombia, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Uruguay, USA, Pepe, Vedran Corluka, Shinji Okazaki, Tim Howard, Luis Suárez, Keith Andrews, Josip Simunic, Martín Cáceres, Mario Balotelli, Toni Kroos, Fredy Guarín
Suárez-Uruguay
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International

Team Of The Round
GOALKEEPER

Tim Howard
USA
 The 32-year-old shot-stopper was not intimidated under the bright lights of the Stade de France and made a plethora of fine saves to keep his side in the game. Howard's two stops from Karim Benzema in either half were the pick of the bunch as his heroics kept the
scoreline respectable in the USA's 1-0 loss to les Bleus in Paris.
DEFENDERS

Martin Caceres
Uruguay
Pepe
Portugal
Vedran Corluka
Croatia
Josip Simunic
Croatia
Caceres worked his socks off in a typically energetic performance and his pinpoint cross played an integral role in helping Suarez net his third goal of the evening in a 4-0 rout of Chile. Pepe patrolled the centre of defence in his usual tenacious style as Portugal kept a clean sheet in their crucial first-leg Euro 2012 play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Corluka put in a solid shift at the back and exceeded expectations from an attacking perspective, cutting the ball back to Olic for the opener before probably putting the play-off tie against Turkey to bed with a header in the second half. Like his international team-mate, Simunic did not put a foot wrong all game and was the glue that held the back line together as the visitors did not concede a goal in the 3-0 win in Istanbul.

MIDFIELDERS

Shinji Okazaki
Japan
Fredy Guarin
Colombia
Keith Andrews
Republic of Ireland
Toni Kroos
Germany
Okazaki scored his second brace in as many games for Japan as the Samurai Blue took a big step towards advancing to the final round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup with a 4-0 win over Tajikistan. Guarin opened the scoring for Colombia with a laserbeam that was clocked at 105 km/h. The 25-year-old hasn't received much playing time under the new regime at Porto but Friday's performance against Venezuela certainly saw his stock rise before he went off injured. Andrews was a vital cog in the Irish machine that steamrollered Estonia to all-but-assure the boys in green a place in the European Championships next year. He gave the visitors an early lead in Tallinn and pulled the strings in midfield all night long for Trapattoni's men. Kroos scored a screamer in the first half and was instrumental in helping Germany recover from a two-goal deficit to salvage a draw against Ukraine in an international friendly.


FORWARDS

Luis Suarez
Uruguay
Mario Balotelli
Italy
Suarez single-handedly condemned Chile to a devastating defeat in their Conmebol World Cup qualifier on Friday. The Liverpool man was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring four goals in a performance that many Uruguayans will not forget any time soon. Balotelli scored his first goal for the senior squad and what a strike it was as the swerving thunderbolt left the Polish keeper with absolutely no chance. The Man City striker capped off a sterling display by setting up Pazzini on a silver platter in the 2-0 win.

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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
19:17 BST
Right, that’s me, Danny Hart, done. Joe Doyle is itching to retain his LIVE! crown for the evening. England reaction, Netherlands-Northern Ireland updates and much, much more - Doyle will be across it all. England are gonna win the Euros! And remember: EMILE HESKEY. Cheerio!
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