Uruguay gained a measure of revenge for last year’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Holland as they beat the Dutch 4-3 on penalties after their friendly finished 1-1 here on Wednesday. Uruguay’s Liverpool striker Luis Suarez opened the scoring eight minutes from time but the Dutch levelled a minute into time added on as Suarez’s clubmate Dirk Kuyt popped up to head home. However, the Dutch messed up in the penalty shootout out as Robin van Persie and Eljero Elia missed their penalties and the hosts sealed victory when Alvaro Pereira made no mistake to give them victory.
It ended the ‘Oranje’s’ 10-match unbeaten run since losing to Spain in the World Cup final and gave Uruguay a boost just three weeks away from the start of the Copa America, which they along with Argentina hold the record of victories with 14. Uruguay, though, will be concerned by the lack of form of their iconic striker Diego Forlan, who is a long way away from the level of play he showed at last year’s World Cup which saw him awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament, and he was taken off in the 78th minute after a lacklustre performance. Uruguay round off their Copa preparations with another friendly against European minnows Estonia on June 23 in Montevideo. The Copa runs from July 1 to July 24 in Argentina.
