Heroes and Villains: Herrera’s hurrah and Suarez snaps

Heroes

Miguel Herrera
Mexico manager Herrera has certainly lit up the stage from the touchline with his dramatic and somewhat enthusiastic reactions to… well just about anything. His Aztecs army managed to qualify superbly from Group A, consisting of hosts Brazil, Croatia and Cameroon, and we all had the pleasure of witnessing his jubilant celebrations on multiple occasions.

While not quite as agile as his was in his international playing days as a stocky mullet-wearing defender, Herrera can still be seen springing up and down in his green Mexico attire, not too dissimilar to a frog. It’s hard to imagine what the scenes will be like if El Tri knock out the Netherlands in the last 16.

Faryd Mondragon
Colombia’s answer to Dorian Gray, Mondragon, swooped onto the pitch in the 85th minute against Japan at the tender age of 43 – breaking the 20 year record held by Cameroon legend Roger Milla.

With Jose Pekerman’s men ahead 3-1 at the time, he decided to give the stopper, born in 1971, his 56th cap and first competitive appearance since 2005. He made a sole save and kept a clean sheet in his sixth World Cup, and even saw his side grab a fourth goal.

Georgios Samaras
After a pretty ordinary season with Celtic, in which he played a bit-part role in, making 19 league appearances and scoring seven times – resulting in him being released – few would have predicted the former Manchester City forward would make such an impact in Brazil.

Greece failed to even score in their first two Group C games, but the 29-year-old was pivotal in his side’s dramatic 2-1 victory over the more-fancied Ivory Coast. He laid on an assist for his near namesake Andreas Samaris, before slotting in an injury time penalty after being fouled, thus making his side progress to uncharted territory, past the group stages.

Villains

Luis Suarez
Yes, he’s back. Suarez, a.k.a Jaws, has returned for his third showing, and this time on the biggest stage possible, the World Cup. Giorgio Chiellini has become the latest victim, after Otman Bakkal and Branislav Ivanovic, of the serial Uruguay chomper – in his country’s pay-per-chew bite-size gnash with Italy.