World Cup 2022 – Luis Suarez’s hand during the 2010 World Cup, trauma for Ghana, pride of Uruguay

In philosophy, as in football, fate and chance are two notions that intertwine. History may be written, but it may be diverted from its original course by the intervention of the gods of chance. Sometimes they like to be teased like this Friday, April 1, 2022 when chance, precisely, wanted to make people believe in fate: Uruguay and Ghana in the same group, the H, with a last match that looked like the 16th final. The second match in history between the two nations after a first inscribed forever in the world pantheon of football.

This July 2, 2010 is perhaps one of the best modern digests of the tragic, cruel and irreversible aspect of football. At the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, Luis Suarez pulled off one of the craziest moves, in a suspended moment, in World Cup history: deliberate cheating, parrying down his line as Ghana went to score . The rest of the story is known. But not yet digested.

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Revenge time has come“, launched the president of the Ghanaian Federation, Kurt Orkaku, on the BBC on the day of the draw. John Mahama, ex-president of the Republic, went further: “Look what God has done, bringing Uruguay back to our group. It will be sweet revenge if we defeat them. So even if you don’t beat anyone, beat Uruguay for me and give Suarez back what he did to us“.

Africa behind the Black Stars

The tone was less warlike for André Ayew on Sunday at the microphone of beIN Sport, but the former Marseillais closed up instantly at the evocation of this memory: “I am the only survivor of this. It’s no use talking too much, it’s a match where we will have to recover points to move on to the next round, quite simply“. It’s still a little more than that. This Ghana-Uruguay remains a trauma for an entire continent. Because this hand also came to deprive Africa of its first World Cup semi-final.

Before playing against Uruguay, we had lots of supporters, all of Africa was with us, almost the whole world. It was a historic moment. Looking around all you could see were flags of Ghana“, remembered for BBC Black Stars right wing starter John Paintsil. The match is almost like a dream for the teammates of Sulley Muntari, author of the opener just before half-time.

If Diego Forlan equalizes before the hour mark, the Ghanaians hold the shock until the end of regulation time. In extra time, the chances multiplied on the goal of Fernando Muslera before this fateful 120th minute. “I scratch a free kick from the right side and, when I win the ball, I pray thinking to myself: ‘this ball will go straight into the net‘”, explains the right side again.

Tried to trick the ref into thinking it was Fucile

The ball, deflected at the near post, is poorly cleared by Fernando Muslera. Dennis Appiah, at close range, is countered by… Suarez before the ball is finally spiked by Dominic Adiyiah, who came into play. No doubt: Muslera is beaten, there will be a goal, Ghana will reach the semi-finals , Africa is jubilant. But, staying on his line, Suarez decides otherwise. The Uruguayan number 9 returns the ball with his hand and tries a bluff.

Adiyiah’s header against Uruguay: a moment suspended before Suarez’s hand

Credit: Imago

There were a lot of people and I thought the referee didn’t see anythinghe will tell, in 2014, in his autobiography with the evocative name, ‘Crossing The Line’. Next to me on the line was also my partner Jorge Fucile. He was already warned and therefore suspended for the semi-final, so I tried to make the referee believe it was him, but he didn’t fall for it. He gave me a red card, whistled a penalty and I walked off the pitch. Beaten down. Tears were running down my cheeks“. They won’t stay long.

Asamoah Gyan steps forward to strike. A specialist in exercise, he only missed the target once in his career, during the 2006 World Cup. Since then, he’s been a sniper: 7 attempts, 7 successes, including two in this World Cup. “When we recovered the penalty, I said to myself that it was good, that we had our expert Asamoah Gyancontinue son coéquipier. We all thought we were already in the semi-finals. When the ball hit the bar, it was a shock“. Moment suspended in Johannesburg and eternal regrets for the Ghanaian striker.

“If I’m being honest, I can’t watch the game”

The trickster Suarez, he has not yet joined the locker room. He celebrates this bar from the corridor as a decisive goal. The blow on the head of the Ghanaians is indeed equivalent. Behind, it is on penalties that the Black Stars leave the competition, definitively eliminated after a panenka transformed by the “loco” Sebastián Abreu. Gyan did not disassemble when converting his shot on goal but he knows that this is not the kick that should be scored…

Asamoah Gyan inconsolable during Uruguay – Ghana in 2010

Credit: AFP

At the hotel, we all had to go through Gyan’s room to cheer him uprembobine encore Paintsil. He thought he was the only culprit. We did what we could but he cried all night. Gyan still feels that pain, the whole team is in the same condition“. It is not Hans Sarpei, also present that evening with the Black Stars, who will say the opposite. Even years later, his speech sweats anger and resentment.

He’s on the line, the ball’s almost in ithe also regrets to the BBC. But there, he decides to cheat before being expelled. If I’m honest, I can’t watch the game. When it’s on TV, I don’t watch it. I was there and the pain is still there. We had to go to the semi-finals, we had to be the first African team to reach the semi-finals and that would have changed a lot of things for Africa“.

Luis Suarez’s “saving” hand against Ghana.

Credit: Panoramic

The celebration that does not pass

The worst thing for them: this Uruguayan celebration before their eyes, with a Luis Suarez carried in triumph by his teammates. “We were there, crying, and we saw a cheater celebrating in front of us… How can I forgive him? No way…“, concludes Sarpei. It must be said that, that evening, the Uruguayan striker is not discreet.

I’m a fucking guardian!, he says euphorically in the mixed zone. I realized the stoppage of the World Cup. I had no choice. The hand of God, I have it now. Why talk about the Devil’s hand?“. Because it is precisely the expression chosen by Milovan Rajevac, the Ghanaian coach. A tone that has not changed in twelve years: Thursday, during the press conference organized by Uruguaya Ghanaian journalist claimed to the attacker that he saw him “like the devil himself“.

I can’t forgive himalso drops Paintsil. Simply because he cheated. A cheat is a cheat. After that missed penalty, he went out but eventually came back to celebrate, like he was on top of the world. At least be professional, feel our pain. Celebrate it in the locker room, no one can see“.

From 2010 to 2022, Suarez has not deviated from his line. He sacrificed himself for his people, as any of his teammates would have done. “I don’t think my gesture was that serioushe writes in his book. I didn’t score a goal with the hand like Diego Maradona in 1986. I didn’t hurt anyone. I acted instinctively and in the moment felt more like I sacrificed myself“.

A bauble so symbolic

I won’t apologize for thishe repeated on Wednesday despite the offensive questions. Admittedly, I took the ball out of my hand, but it was not me who missed the penalty. He is the Ghanaian player. I could have apologized if I had tackled and injured a player while taking a red card, but in this situation I took a red, the penalty was called, but it’s not my fault if the Ghanaian missed his penalty“. Cruel but factual.

Other gestures, attitudes or goals will mark the course of the attacker. Bites, provocations, genius: Luis Suarez is a summary of all that. But this gesture, he retains an incomparable emotional tenderness. Among all the trophies and souvenirs he stores in his villa in Montevideo, only one stands out for its simplicity: “It’s a figurine of a goalkeeper who makes an incredible save, donated by Uruguayan supporters. There is a word engraved just below: thank you“.

Uruguayan fans thank Luis Suarez, who was suspended in Uruguay’s 2010 semi-final

Credit: Getty Images

Twelve years later, the emotion is still there. Among Ghanaians, she will probably never leave. But while the gesture divided footballing opinion at the time, Suarez’s vice is no longer so divisive. The work of time, no doubt. And because the argument of the Uruguayan faker is infallible: everyone would have done the same. Argument all the more effective as the biggest victim of the case finally validated it.

I wish I could forget this penalty, go back, but it’s not possiblewill respond transparently to Asamoah Gyan with The team in 2014. This image haunts me. On one side there is a hero, on the other a destroyed man. But, in the end, he was right. In my country, people hate him, but if I had been in his place I would have done the same. It was up to me to write the story. Unfortunately this penalty turned me into the nation’s worst enemy. But I can still redeem myself. One day, maybe, my son or my nephew will succeed in doing what I did not do.“. History that chance and fate once again intertwine with the course of the great history of football.

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