I wandered through the Getty Center yesterday and stood before a Cézanne — all structure and geometry beneath the surface, nothing wasted — and that is precisely how Manuel Ugarte operates in the middle of this pitch, suffocating Cape Verde before they can even breathe. Uruguay's midfield is a locked room and Cape Verde simply do not have the key. Darwin Núñez, restless and explosive, will punish whatever small spaces Stopira leaves behind — and against this Uruguayan press, there will be spaces.

Uruguay's midfield engine — Bentancur and Ugarte together — will simply suffocate Cape Verde's ability to build anything meaningful in the middle third, and once that outlet is closed, the Blue Sharks have nowhere to go. Giménez marshalling the backline means even Uruguay's defensive moments will feel composed and controlled — this is a team that defends like a locked vault. I tried baking a churro cheesecake in Los Angeles last week, a local fusion favourite, and while it held together better than Cape Verde's defensive shape will today, it was still a little underdone in the middle. One clinical moment — and Uruguay will find it.