Heroes and Villains: Luis Suarez and Ghana in the 2010 World Cup

The one question that the world wanted answered after the 2006 World Cup was, "What did Marco Materazzi say to Zinedine Zidane?"  Shortly after the 2006 tournament, videos starring Materazzi's dirtiest fouls emerged on youtube.  Materzzi had quickly become the villain of the tournament because he had provoked our hero, Zidane, to ruin what should have been his finest hour.  

This year, heroes haven't emerged as easily.  Perhaps David Villa is the hero of the tournament.  His goal scoring has been incredible.  Perhaps you jumped on the Leo Messi bandwagon.  Messi didn't score but enabled everything Argentina produced on the field.  Stateside, it was Landon Donovan.  His last minute goal was a changing moment for soccer in the States.   Maybe Tomas Mueller is your guy.   In Africa, the hero was a country:  Ghana.  

In the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup, Ghana and Uruguay met, with Ghana holding the hopes of a continent on its shoulders.  Ghana was looking to become the first African team to make the semifinals of the World Cup.  They were the only African nation to make the knock-out rounds and had taken down the U.S. to reach the quarters.  

The game itself was excellent.  Two very nice goals meant that the game ended in a draw.  In Extra Time (not Overtime for some reason), nothing happened until the 120th minute of the match when the 2010 World Cup villain emerged.  Luis Suarez deliberately reached out his hand to stop a shot from going into the goal.  Ghana should have won, but Suarez decided that the Ghanains might miss a penalty.  He reached out and blocked the shot.  He got a well deserved red card.  Ghana missed the penalty and then lost the game in shootouts.  Kent has posted more about the cheater, Luis Suarez, asking us what we would do and said that he would do the same thing in that situation.  I'm not sure what I would do (but I have scored a goal with my arm so...).  Either way, Luis Suarez destroyed the hopes and dreams of the African continent and cheated his way to victory.  Luis Suarez is the villain of the 2010 World Cup.

Here's to Uruguay losing 10-0 to Netherlands on Tuesday.  Come on Oranje!

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What Would You Do?

Oh the drama. If you didn't see the Uruguay/Ghana game, you missed out on a classic and some fantastic drama. With seconds left in overtime, Uruguay player Luis Suarez blocks a sure goal with his hands. He is justifiably red-carded. Ghana is given a penalty, but misses! Check it out:



Suarez isn't even trying to pretend like he didn't block it with his hands. He knows.

What would you have done? Is that poor soccer play? I'm all for it. Maybe that makes me a cheap soccer player. But if the ball goes in, like it's going to, Uruguay loses. There is too little time left in the overtime for Uruguay to score. At a different point in the game, I might feel differently. But at this point, no freebies. Might as well block it and make Ghana score the penalty kick. A big gamble that paid off. Especially since Uruguay later won the game on penalty kicks. Suarez was of course red-carded and will miss the next game. But hey, if he doesn't do that, the whole team is going home. He misses the next match, but the Uruguay dream lives on. Talk about taking one for the team.

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