All of the questions Oscar Tabarez has regarding this Uruguayan Squad & all of the questions we have regarding this Uruguayan Squad will be answered on Wednesday night. For the fringe players this will be their last shot at World Cup glory, the last opportunity to crack El Maestro’s line-up, will they be up for the task?

“All Hail King Nacho”

Ah yes our old friend, Ignacio Maria Gonzalez, the “text-book” play-maker, the man who will solve all of Uruguay’s problems or will he? While I made the argument that Uruguay doesn’t need to put all of their eggs in one basket, since opposing defenses will swarm around a player like Nacho (regardless of what number is on his back) — the other school of thought is that Uruguay plays better with Gonzalez since he is a “pure” enganche, who will restore some type of order to a sputtering midfield. The number one question regarding Nacho though is what type of game shape he’s really in, although Tabarez has played with players with zero-match fitness before (all the goalkeepers not named Muslera, Diego Perez & Javier Chevanton) would Tabarez pull the same stunt in the World Cup? Nacho is playing again in the Greek Super League and he’s scored two goals already but is playing in Greece comparable to playing in Italy or Spain? Well come Wednesday we’ll find out what kind of shape Nacho is really in.

“Sushi or Onion”

When Carrasco’s River Plate was about to play the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana semi-final in Quito, Jorge Rodriguez instead opted to stay put in Montevideo knowing full well that Tabarez wouldn’t play him in the home game of the repechaje, why? one word; loyalty. Staying put showed Tabarez, he’s loyal to the cause, now Tabarez may return the favor by possibly playing him on Wednesday night, this will be “Japo’s”  chance to earn a spot as maybe the left midfielder. If Cebolla is dropped, Jorge Rodriguez may earn the spot by default.

Jorge Martinez

Scored 8 goals one by way of penalty in the Serie-A this season, identical to Edinson Cavani’s output this season (also scored 8 goals — one by way of penalty). Martinez plays with more of a pulse than does Sebastian Eguren, I mention this because Malaka could end up being the guy that displaces Eguren on the line-up, that is of course if Tabarez wants to replace Eguren on the line-up (we’ll have to see it to believe it).

“Number 12″

Uruguay has their Number One, Fernando Muslera. Like him or not, Muslera is not likely to lose the starter’s spot. He is capable of losing his temper though, in fact Muslera sat out on Saturday due to yellow card accumulation. The one chink in Muslera’s armor other than the fact that his team is facing relegation is just that, Muslera sometimes argues too much with the referees. So your back-up needs to be ready to go just in case. So do you take Muñoz, Silva or Castillo? We won’t know, Tabarez will be using the training sessions to solve this riddle.

“Hold The Onions?”

Do you take him or do you drop him? An injury at Porto had kept Cristian Rodriguez off the radar, he came back yesterday as a sub as Porto went down 3-0 to Sporting, but from what I saw last night, Cebolla still plays at 125 mph, and he’s still a hothead who is just one bonehead play away from seeing a straight red. But lets be honest here, we never saw the alleged altercation between Cebolla & Heinze, if there was one indeed, to me it sounds like a shoving match that was exaggerated by a referee caught up in the emotion of the evening. Cebolla wasn’t capped, just in case maybe FIFA reverses itself and allows Uruguay to use this game (since it is an official competition) as part of Cebolla’s 4 game suspension thus paving the way for Cebolla to serve only a one game suspension in June. Or maybe El Maestro has decided to drop him all together, he could easily replace him with Alvaro Pereira or Jorge Rodriguez and go from there. Whether Tabarez should take him is a fair argument but in my book he should go.

   

26 Responses to “ON THE FRINGE”