Uruguay struggles in first 2 matches as Suárez watches from the stands

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Uruguay struggles in first 2 matches as Suárez watches from the stands

2026-06-22 11:34 Last Updated At：11:40

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Uruguay is off to a start many did not expect. After draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde, and with a match against Spain still to come, the two-time World Cup winner is at risk of missing the knockout stage.

Among the many fans watching was someone the team looked to for goals for more than 15 years: Luis Suárez.

The matches were played in Miami Stadium, near where Suárez serves as striker for Inter Miami. The 39-year-old watched from above as Uruguay struggled despite being heavily favored.

Suárez ended his international career in 2024 as the all-time leading scorer for the national team with 69 goals in 143 appearances. He was ultimately left off coach Marcelo Bielsa’s squad after months of speculation.

After the match, Bielsa spoke about the team’s inability to capitalize on some of its advantages.

“I think that the problem or greatest issue is that we started the second half with the ball and with the victory,” Bielsa said through a translator after Sunday’s game. “And it was at that moment that we didn’t close it. We didn’t make any danger.”

Bielsa claimed his team “lacked a finishing touch” in Sunday night’s draw. Something that Suárez once delivered in his time with Uruguay.

Fans of Uruguay recognized how difficult it can be to replace a player of Suárez’s caliber.

“(I have) mixed feelings to be honest,” Uruguay supporter Frederico Suárez said. “He’s old and now it’s time for the younger players. But he’s a good player, maybe the best player I’ve ever watched with Uruguay.”

In April, Luis Suárez announced he was willing to come out of retirement to play for Uruguay in the World Cup. The announcement fueled speculation that Uruguay’s star could make one final appearance on soccer’s biggest stage. Bielsa instead placed his faith in Uruguay’s next attacking generation, also excluding veteran striker Edinson Cavani from his roster.

“I feel like he’s a little older, so for players like Darwin (Núñez), I think it just gives him a little bit more of a chance to shine,” Uruguay fan Ian Lancaster said.

In its first World Cup match without Suárez since 2010, Uruguay narrowly avoided an upset against Saudi Arabia with the team’s only goal coming late from midfielder Maxi Araújo. Nuñez and Federico Viñas led the front line but were largely ineffective.

Bielsa chose a different lineup Sunday night, starting only Viñas to lead the attack. Midfielder Agustín Canobbio was added to the starting lineup against Cape Verde and made a difference, scoring Uruguay’s second goal.

It was Canobbio’s narrow miss in the second half, however, that could have given Uruguay a much-needed victory.

Suárez and Bielsa clashed after the 2024 Copa América when Suárez criticized Bielsa for the negative environment he had created under his leadership. Now, Bielsa and the Uruguay team will face further pressure to secure a win with an attack that has yet to dispel concerns.

All eyes will be on Uruguay on Friday as they travel to Guadalajara Stadium for a match against Spain.

“Our expectations with Uruguay now is that we never know,” Uruguay fan Alfonso Aguel said. “We need to play every match, go match by match, and see what actually happens.”

Gracie Fisher is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Trump-backed de la Espriella holds razor-thin lead in Colombia's election as rival challenges vote

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella held a razor-thin lead in Colombia’s presidential election with nearly all the votes counted Sunday, in a runoff vote marked by people’s fears of a renewed internal conflict.

A victory by de la Espriella would effectively be an indictment of the policies of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, whose protégé had promised to continue his agenda if he defeated his rival.

De la Espriella, a business owner and lawyer who earned U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite never having run for office, led progressive lawmaker Iván Cepeda taking 49.7% of the votes, with 99.9% of the results released by electoral authorities. Cepeda, Petro’s ally, earned 48.7% support. Election officials have not formally announced a winner.

“I appear before you tonight to announce the most important news of my life: the Colombian people have entrusted me with the supreme honor of serving them as their next president of the Republic of Colombia,” de la Espriella told thousands of supporters as he stood behind bulletproof glass in the northern city of Barranquilla. “I will govern for all Colombians … there will be no retaliation, no persecution, because in a democracy there are no irreconcilable enemies.”

Cepeda told supporters that his campaign considers the count “unofficial and non-binding” and that his team will challenge results from more than 30,000 voting stations. No recount has flipped the results of a presidential election in Colombian history.

“We will not allow ... the rollback of the social gains we have achieved,” Cepeda said. “We will not allow democracy to be violated.”

Petro also vowed to challenge the outcome.

Both candidates pitched voters widely different strategies to prevent the South American country from experiencing the nonstop merciless violence, such as car bombs, kidnappings, disappearances and forced displacements, that Colombians lived with in previous decades.

Sunday's winner will begin a four-year term Aug. 7.

De la Espriella, 47, promised a heavy-handed approach to crime-fighting, including drug trafficking. He also said he plans to end Petro’s attempts to establish parallel peace negotiations with multiple armed groups — an effort that has largely failed — and build mega-prisons, emulating Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's aggressive policies. Those tactics have lowered homicide rates in the Central American country but have fueled accusations of human rights abuses.

De la Espriella, nicknamed “The Tiger,” holds dual Colombian and U.S. citizenship. He's a Trump supporter and a member of the Republican Party.

“We have had an armed conflict and a drug trafficking problem for too long, and this has greatly polarized the country,” retired economist Víctor Duque, 72, said while wearing a national soccer team jersey at a voting center in the capital, Bogota. “I believe it is one of the most important elections that has taken place in Colombia this century.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador were among the first political leaders to congratulate de la Espriella.

“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen our economic ties,” Rubio said on X. “Colombia’s best days are ahead.”

“He Won, BIG!” Trump later said on his social media platform.

In the first round, Cepeda earned 41% of the vote, while de la Espriella garnered 44%, according to official results. Petro, without evidence, sowed doubts in the results after Cepeda, who had consistently led polls ahead of the May vote, did not win outright and even finished behind de la Espriella.

Yolanda Hernández, 49, voted early Sunday before she started selling black-ink pens outside a Bogota voting center. Clients, she said, buy the pens because ink cannot be erased from paper ballots, which reduces the possibility of fraud.

Hernández, who recycles trash for a living, voted for Petro in 2022, but cast her ballot for de la Espriella this time. While she acknowledged that Petro was unable to deliver on promises meant to help the poor because of congressional gridlock, she said Colombia cannot afford another four years under his vision for the country.

“We want change in Colombia because it’s always the same violence, always the same thing,” Hernández said. “(Petro) said he was going to lower the cost of services, that he was going to lower the price of food, and everything is more expensive.”

People in the streets of Bogota yelled “Petro out! Petro out!” and honked car horns as results became public.

Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Sunday’s result shows the country “has not shifted overwhelmingly or decisively” against Petro’s project or for de la Espriella’s outsider “iron fist showmanship.” Freeman added that the result also underscored Colombia’s regional divisions.

“It’s regional not just ideological polarization; or rather, the two overlapping,” he said. “Ironically, de la Espriella’s iron fist message performed best in the core of the country, not the periphery, which bears the brunt of Colombia’s violence.”

The election comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, that had offered hope to break the nation’s vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government.

But violence has since roared back, particularly as most rebel groups abandoned their ideologically driven fight for the financial benefits of drug trafficking. Colombia’s illegal groups have more than 27,000 members.

Last year, authorities recorded 14,780 homicides, the most since at least 2015 and driven by clashes among illegal armed groups. Among those killed was conservative presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe. Extortions have also soared, reaching 13,417 cases in 2025, more than double the number tallied in 2015.