The score was tied at one between Uruguay and Ghana in the dying minutes of the 30 minutes of extra times. Ghana's offense bombarded the Uruguayans' penalty area. At one point, one of Ghana's players headed the ball and it looks like it was going to be in the net. However, Luis Suarez was right behind the goal line and used his hands to kept the ball away from passing the goal line. The referee saw this, gave Suarez a red card, sent him off the field, and gave Ghana a chance to score via penalty kick. Asamoah Gyan took the penalty kick, but he had a little too much power that sent the ball hit the top of the cross bar and missed the net. As soon as he missed, the ref blew the final whistle to end the game and proceeded to penalty shootout. Ghana lost 4-2 in the penalty shootout and that broke the heart of many Ghanaian supporters i.e. the whole continent of Africa. Watch the video below in reverse angle to see one of the most dramatic finish in the World Cup history.
A lot of people think Suarez cheated for using his hands to keep the ball away from the net. But he actually did not cheat. He committed a foul and got penalized for it. The ref did the right thing for sending Suarez off the game and gave Ghana the penalty kick. Let's look at it this way, if Suarez blatantly used his hand to control the ball in the 73rd minute, outside the penalty area, resulted in expulsion from the game and a free kick for Ghana, would you call that cheating? No, because that would be a very idiotic move by Suarez if he did that. Most people think it's cheating since the opposing team got eliminated because of that handball.
Suarez really got nothing to lose to use his hands to control the ball at that point of time. He knew the ball was going to go in the net if he did not knock the ball away with his hand. If the ball went in, there really was no time for Uruguay to score another goal to even things up and would make Uruguay got eliminated from the World Cup. By using his hands, not only he did not allow the ball to go in to the net, Suarez also created an opportunity for Uruguay's goal keeper to stop the ball from the penalty kick. If Ghana were to win the game and advances to the semi final, Suarez made it slightly harder for Ghana to win. It was not Suarez' fault that Asamoah Gyan did not score in that penalty kick. I would ask the question again, would you say Suarez cheated if Gyan scored the goal in that penalty and Ghana advances to the semi?
Suarez' handball was definitely one of the most brilliant & instinctive, yet controversial plays in the World Cup history. Because of his handball, Uruguay now would play the Netherlands in the semifinal. Even if they could not advance to the final, because Uruguay is missing a couple of key players including Suarez, they still have a chance to play and win for the third place spot; it is a much better accomplishment than getting eliminated in the quarter final.
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