Barcelona – Luis Suarez is urging his Uruguayan teammates to learn from the fallout of Liverpool’s season with the World Cup looming.
Suarez said on Friday that Liverpool’s title run was wrecked because it “lacked concentration” in a late season 2-0 loss at home to Chelsea.
He wants to make sure that his international colleagues don’t get caught looking too far ahead, when Uruguay starts the World Cup on June 14 against Costa Rica. It also faces former champions England and Italy in Group D.
Uruguay’s greatest moment of football glory came in 1950 when it beat host Brazil 2-1 in the World Cup final at Rio’s Maracana Stadium for its second world title. Uruguay returned to the semifinals in 2010.
“My focus is on the World Cup now,” Suarez said. “Everyone remembers the last World Cup we won in Brazil. But that is the past. I don’t know if it was a miracle, in football you never know what will happen.
“Our group is one of the most difficult. We will go forward thinking in each game as it comes.”
Suarez was voted the player of the year in England by the player’s association. He scored a league-leading 31 goals for Liverpool, only for his team to come up two points short behind champion Manchester City after its stumble against Chelsea.
“The negative point of the season is that we had the league title so close,” said Suarez. “When we started the season our target was to finish in the top four. We finished second in the Premier and that is amazing for Liverpool after not finishing in the top four in (recent seasons) and now we are back in the Champions League.
“I think what we were lacking was that in that key game against Chelsea, we weren’t unlucky, we just weren’t concentrated enough when they scored on us after not doing much. We then lacked the focus to create chances to level.”
Speaking in Barcelona near to where his wife’s family lives, Suarez dismissed any talk of him making a major move to one of the two big Spanish clubs, Barcelona or Real Madrid. – Sapa-AP