Luis Suárez gave Uruguay hope late on in the game against Spain with a glorious free kick, a skill that he often uses to devastating effect. The goal he got on the night also means that he's now level with Diego Forlán (on 33 goals) as Uruguay's top scorer, a position that he'll undoubtedly occupy by himself one day given that Forlán is eight years his senior (the former Atlético de Madrid player winning his 99th cap against Spain).
The Liverpool striker has notched up the same number of goals at the age of just 26, not bad at all when you consider Messi is at a comparable level. Leo has 35 goals for Argentina, at the age of 25 and with 82 games under his belt, but isn't yet top-scorer for his country, with that post still held - although probably not for much longer - by Gabriel Omar Batistuta.
Suárez has scored his international goals at a rate of knots. His 33 goals from 65 internationals give him a goal-scoring rate of more than a goal for every two games, something that hasn't been achieved by a Uruguayan for more than 50 years. From the country's ten top scorers, only Héctor Scarone (31 from 52), Óscar Míguez (27 from 39) and Pedro Petrone (24 from 29) have better goal-scoring averages. They all played during the 30's and 50's.
The Real Madrid target first played for 'La Celeste' on 8th February 2007. From his 65 games he's started 50 of them, and from his 33 goals, only 12 have been in friendly games. "I'm very proud to have managed to draw level with Forlán", he said after the game in Recife on Sunday night.
He's gathering achievements at quite a pace these days and he already has a few to his name: top foreign scorer in a Dutch league season (hitting the target 35 time for Ajax); second top scorer amongst non-Dutch players in the Dutch league (91 compared to Romario's 98); or second-top foreign scorer for Ajax (with 111 goals compared to the 133 scored by Finland's Litmanen). He's becoming a true footballing legend, and Casillas found that one out personally.
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