SETE LAGOAS // Luis Suarez stands by a large wooden table in the reception of Uruguay's team hotel, 70 kilometres north of Belo Horizonte.
The majority of the visiting South American teams are staying close to Brazil's third city, a hospitable sprawl without the natural charms of Rio de Janeiro.
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Suarez, who has not played a game since the end of the English season, has just completed another full training session at a nearby stadium. He is at ease with teammates as they lunch in their shorts and flip flops. At least that was not confiscated by Brazilian customs, like the 39 kilograms of dulce de leche – a sweet spread – the team brought. They are otherwise happy in their hotel.
Three copies of a respected Brazilian current affairs magazine sit on the table. Cristiano Ronaldo is on the cover of one, Lionel Messi another and Neymar the other. Suarez was the best player in England's Premier League last season, but his profile and status in world football remains a notch below the magazine cover stars.
Suarez hoped for a great World Cup, but his preparation has been hampered by injury.
As he continued the rehabilitation for his damaged knee, Suarez did not play in Uruguay's first World Cup game, against Costa Rica. Uruguay were confident of victory without him, though they respected Costa Rica deeply.
Uruguay's squad contains several veterans of the side that narrowly overcame Costa Rica in the play-off for the 2010 World Cup. They reached the semi-finals of that tournament and won the Copa America a year later. Ranked seventh in the world, Uruguay are a hard, respected, side.
"The four teams in the group are of a similar level," said the veteran striker Diego Forlan on the eve of the tournament. "Even Costa Rica. They're 34th in the world, higher than the likes of Japan and South Korea, and qualified straight from the tough Concacaf."
Few took Forlan's words as anything more than polite diplomacy, but they were taken more seriously after a 3-1 defeat in Fortaleza.
"We were bad against Costa Rica," said Diego Lugano, the captain, who spent three years of his career at Sao Paulo, where Thursday's match will take place, though he won't be able to take the pitch, having been ruled out with injury. "Everyone was annoyed after the game. We got really heated up. The details were wrong and we were unable to change it. But now we are united again. We are hoping for a different formula against England."
The pair meet in South America's biggest city in one of the most intriguing matches of the tournament so far. Defeat for either side means almost certain elimination.
Following their opening setback, the mood in Uruguay's camp switched from relaxed to tense, bordering on paranoid. The players still pass around mate, the caffeinated South American drink, and appear relaxed, but the smiling disposition of the sun of the huge Uruguay flag that hangs in their hotel reception is at odds with the overall mood.
Someone had leaked information from Uruguay's behind-closed-doors training sessions and nobody knew who.
The Uruguay camp went into lockdown ahead of Thursday's game. The gates were locked, foreign media not made welcome.
English journalists were escorted from the team hotel – a ranch in rolling countryside stocked with cattle – once Uruguay had fulfilled the minimum media requirements. Despite global interest in the game, no questions had been permitted in English.
Once they were off the premises, Suarez was brought to meet the Uruguayan media behind closed doors, though his quotes were soon available to all. The Liverpool striker said: "I have been training for a few days with the team and I am 100 per cent ready, I now only need time on the pitch and to play the game. There is not one player who is going to be the saviour. We all have to work together to carry on."
He was obviously the Uruguayan to ask about England.
"I know all the English national team players, either because they are teammates or because they are rivals," he said. "They have defensive woes that we can take advantage of, but I won't tell the press how we have to play."
With Forlan and Cavani inconsistent, Uruguay need Suarez to be at his best.
"We dream of him playing," said Lugano, 33, who appeared fleetingly in England last season with West Bromwich Albion. "This is our greatest challenge. England are the favourites. The game against England will be more intense in terms of tactics. It will be more physical."
A good captain, Lugano had to talk the talk and conceal any infighting. "We believe we have the strength to battle against England. There will be difficulties but we must play with what we have."
Stung that he is being spied on, Uruguay's wily coach, Oscar Tabarez, said he is not giving out the team until just before the game.
"We are going to change everything," he said. "We need to win. So do England. We need to change our attitude and put different measures in place, and we need to be aware of that."
Pushed to talk about England, Tabarez – or "maestro" to every Uruguayan – said: "England were unlucky against Italy. The attackers are very powerful. They have a lot of young players there with great potential. They are very fast and take quick decisions. They get into the right areas. We have to look to limit that. We can't have them doing that against us. But for us it's not just looking at their younger stars."
While Uruguay's players talk in private about England's promising youngsters and the bright prospects for the future, Tabarez picked out Steven Gerrard: "He is a player we cannot neglect. He is the thermometer of English football. We have to be aware of this power and control it."
Tabarez likes to have control. His team lost it in the second half against Costa Rica and he clearly is unnerved that others were watching his preparations. He will need every ounce of his considerable experience and guile to settle and steer Uruguay out of the group phase.
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Inside Uruguay’s camp with Luis Suarez, Forlan and Lugano ahead of do-or-die clash with England
Oscar Tabarez kicked all foreign journalists out of Uruguay's training camp after team tactics were leaked. All except The National's Andy Mitten, that is. Read his report from the inside.
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