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Uruguay’s Luis Suarez reacts after missing a chance to score on June 15, 2018 at the Ekaterinburg Arena in Yekaterinburg, Russia.DARREN STAPLES/Reuters

Luis Suarez cut a frustrated figure in this World Cup’s second game, as Uruguay struggled to get past Egypt. At least he wasn’t cutting anyone with his teeth.

Suarez was frustrated because the usually mighty Uruguayan system of solid defence and slick midfield passing to the twin strikers, him and Edinson Cavanai, wasn’t working. In fact, little happened of much interest until finally, with a minute left, José Giménez rose to meet a corner kick with a powerful header and Uruguay made it 1-0. It stayed that way, as Egypt ended the game in what must have been bewildered disappointment.

The acrid and small, but significant, dramas of the World Cup are now starting to unfold, away from the glamour games involving the top countries. Egypt’s drama was the loss of Mohamed Salah, who has scored 44 times for Liverpool this past season and emerged as the most feared striker in Europe. He sat out this one on the bench, still recovering from an injury that occurred when Real Madrid (and Spain) defender Sergio Ramos almost pulled Salah’s arm from its socket in a vicious and unpunished foul in the Champions League final. With Salah, Egypt, returning to the World Cup for the first time since 1990, could hope to beat anyone. Without him, even against a disorganized Uruguay, the team looked dogged and desperately short of a true goal scorer.

As for Suarez, the received wisdom is he hopes for a World Cup without huge incident. In his two previous appearances, he became notorious in a way that only crackpot players gain notoriety. In 2010 his deliberate handball stopped Ghana from scoring and essentially knocked the last African team out of the first World Cup to be played on the continent. In 2014, he sunk his teeth into an Italian defender. It was the third time he’d been caught biting and he was eventually banned from playing by FIFA for a lengthy period.

If Uruguay expect to go far in this tournament – many expect it will – and Suarez can simply score goals rather than cause controversy, some fluency will be needed. Otherwise, cutting a frustrated figure will be Suarez’s only big achievement.

Meanwhile, the game’s true ending, on TV, was a shot of Salah – who has never bitten anyone or attempted the wrenching of arms from shoulders – shaking his head and looking achingly forlorn.

That game was played at the Ekaterinburg Arena in chilly Yekaterinburg, in the east of Russia. It’s a bizarre-looking arena with newly added seating protruding outward from the original circular stadium, and it had many empty seats for Uruguay playing Egypt. There were hardly any empty places in the St. Petersburg Stadium for the Group B match between Morocco and Iran. There was, however, the distinct and unnerving sound of vuvuzela horns – the luridly piercing soundtrack to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Possibly, in homes around the world, people ran screaming from the room.

If you want a team with guts going for glory, but given to calamity, Morocco is your team. Determined to score early and often – they will need goals and points, with Spain and Portugal in the same group – Morocco attacked fiercely from the get-go. They had 80 per cent of ball possession at one point. All speed and enthusiasm, they seemed certain to get several goals – inelegantly, perhaps, but goals for sure. Iran merely threw players in the way, blocking everything in a kind of subdued panic.

Not much ensued, though, and the second half descended into scrappy, half-organized attacks by both sides and a lot of clashing heads and fouls. Just as one was hoping for a last dash of gusto and a goal from Morocco, it went horribly, excruciatingly wrong. Iran was having one of its rare attacking moves in the final minute, and as the ball dropped in toward Morocco’s goal mouth, up popped Aziz Bouhaddouz to head it directly into his own goal. Mortified, the man dropped to knees in some kind of spasm. Iran stole a shock win and, get this, now sits atop Group B with three points, while Spain and Portugal have one each.

Neither game had the elegance and goals of the clash between Portugal and Spain, but they had the kind of destructive, corrosive story arc that makes for gripping drama. Let’s not call it biting drama, yet.

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