Poetic justice or karma? Call it whatever you want but for twelve long years, many Ghanaians have cried foul – they literally did same in-game, and cursed Suarez for his handball in the 2010 World Cup. It is a moment which identifies with the Black Stars, but what if you were told that penalty shouldn’t have stood?
In the past week, Joy Sports have been reliving some of Ghana’s World Cup moments whilst running the rule of some of the refereeing decisions under the close microscope of VAR.
In the history books, Suarez remains a villain but if there was VAR, that wouldn’t have been the case and perhaps most people would have forgotten about that moment.
Let’s go back in time – specifically 12 years ago – with the World Cup shoring on the borders of Africa for the very first time, African football excellence was served on the side, with the Black Stars of Ghana playing a remarkable tournament.
July 2, 2010, marked one of the happiest moments for Ghana football faithful, and it was also the sourest; a cocktail of a game really, which had everything – from quality to diverse emotions on offer.
After a Sulley Muntari strike from over 30 yards, the Black Stars were locked in a stalemate with Uruguay, following Diego Forlan’s equalizer from a freekick. But Ghana had history staring them right in the face and were a penny close to rewriting football’s legends.
In the final minute of extra time, the Black Stars had a last gasp opportunity to win the game. Painstil, hands on waist and feet apart, delivered a peach into Uruguay’s 18-yard box, a prowling Kevin Prince-Boateng flicked on with Muslera desperately hitting the air in a failed attempt to swat the ball away from the area.
The Black Stars were so close, yet so far as the ball bounced in the six-yard-box of a goal post abandoned by Muslera. Organized chaos best describes the events which followed.
A first swipe was taken at the ball by Stephen Appiah, but was repelled on the line by deputizing goalkeeper, Luis Suarez – incredibly, as the commentator’s voice peaked at that moment.
Seconds later, events escalated as Suarez took his just-adopted responsibility too far. Dominic Adiyiah, was on the cusp of becoming a cult hero with his powerful header seemingly destined for the back of the net, till Suarez made a save Richard Kingson will probably have wanted to make on Forlan’s freekick.
Referee, Olegário Benquerença, called back Suarez, handed him a straight red card and awarded the Black Stars a penalty, after the flag of his assistant went up. Ghanaians and Africans in the soccer city went wild but were quickly red-eyed once Asamoah Gyan’s penalty struck the wrong side of the crossbar.
Suarez’s handball was a brilliant spot by the referee’s assistant, but was that actually a penalty? New information reveals Suarez should have still been on the pitch. Let’s roll the sequence back a few seconds.
Painstil’s freekick is flicked on by Prince Boateng and Muslera fluffs his line with an attempted clearance, as Mensah makes contact with the ball. Appiah steps in and kicks the ball but sees it cleared off the line before Adiyiah’s header.
However what many missed but has been made available by new information is, that Appiah was ahead of all of Uruguay’s players at the time Mensah made contact with the ball.
So I’ll bring back the question; poetic justice or karma? Call it whatever you want and you could be right, and should VAR have been eight years earlier, this piece will not even have existed.