Olympics 2012: 5 Players Who Failed to Shine for Uruguay Men's Soccer

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On Wednesday, the Uruguay men's soccer team failed to qualify for the knockout phase of the 2012 Summer Olympics tournament with a 1-0 loss to Great Britain.

If Spain hadn't been eliminated as well, Uruguay would have gone down as the biggest name not to make the final eight.

Even if they aren't the biggest disappointment of the tournament, the Uruguayans not making it past Group A is a huge disappointment for the current South American champs.

The one question circling around the team already—who is to blame for the failure in London?  Here are five players who shoulder that blame.

Luis Suarez

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Let's start with the captain of Uruguay's team, Luis Suarez.

The man who may just be the most hated man in all of Great Britain failed to score a single goal for his country at the Olympics.  More importantly, he failed to lead the team of young players to success.

Some may contend that Suarez let all the booing he received across Great Britain get in his head, but that is not good enough.

The captain and star of the Uruguay team did not show up in this tournament.

Edinson Cavani

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Another veteran of the Uruguay senior national team who played at the Olympics was Edinson Cavani.

Cavani was unimpressive throughout the group stage including the final match against Great Britain.

It is a good thing that Cavani is signed with Napoli for a while, because his transfer stock may have been devalued just a little bit due to his Olympic performance.

Martin Campana

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It is hard to throw a ton of blame on 23-year-old keeper Martin Campana, but he was the starter in front of net in all three Olympic matches.

Campana let in three goals in three games, two to Senegal and one to Great Britain.

The good news for Campana is that he won't have to be the first-choice keeper for the senior team in anytime soon with 26-year-old Fernando Muslera holding a tight grip on that position.

Gaston Ramirez

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The 2012 Olympics could have been a breakout tournament for Gaston Ramirez.

Things were looking up for the 21-year-old Palermo midfielder as he scored in the opening 2-1 win over UAE.

But after the opener, fans didn't see the flair and pace that Ramirez exemplified.

Perhaps he will have his break out tournament in either of the upcoming Confederations Cup or World Cup.

Sebastian Coates

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It's only fair  we blame someone on defense as well.

So the blame, in this case, goes to Sebastian Coates, who may not have been the worst player on the pitch for Uruguay, but, out of all the defenders on the roster, is the most experienced.

The center-back who plays for Liverpool in the Premier League has played against enough top opposition in his one year at Anfield to know what to expect from world-class teams.

For the world-class experience reason, I am going to blame Coates for not helping his teammates in the backfield perform better against Great Britain.