As soon as the referee announced the end of Uruguay’s 1-0 loss to Great Britain in their final group match on Wednesday, their captain, Luis Suarez, fell down to his knees due to the disappointment of crashing out of the 2012 London Olympics.

He remained in that crouched and dejected position until one of his teammates approached and helped him get back on his feet.

This little post-match incident highlights just how badly Suarez wanted to stay alive at London 2012, and its importance to him, his football crazy countrymen, and fans betting on Olympic football, this summer.

Before the London Games, Uruguay had not participated in the Olympics’ football tournaments for 84 long years. Having decided to end their exile from the event this summer, they were determined to go deep and even capture a medal if possible.

This South American country has only won two gold medals at Olympics and their football team in the 1924 and 1928 events won both of them.

Hence, it would not have been a shock if they had managed to find themselves on the podium at the end of the tournament. After all, Ondino Viera, a famous Uruguayan football coach had once famously summarised his countrymen’s enthusiasm for the sport by saying: “Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its football.”

Their current football coach, Oscar Tabarez, had also seemed pumped up for the tournament and had reportedly shown his players the archived footage of Uruguay’s wins of the 1924 and 1928 to get them motivated.

La Celeste arrived in London will full of confidence and an abundance of talent on their roster but, unfortunately, they couldn’t translate that into winning football on the field.

At the start of the competition, they were expected to win their group with ease, but a solitary win, followed by double defeats, meant that their hopes of replicating their forefathers’ Olympics success came to an instant halt in the very first hurdle.

Great Britain’s hopes for the Olympics are looking somewhat brighter than Uruguay’s: Betfair is backing Becky Adlington to win the gold medal in the women’s swimming event.

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