It's World Cup fever across the world again, and I LOVE IT! With all the excitement from the games, I was inspired to blog about an incident from the 2010 FIFA World Cup that has continued to bother me into this one. The incident: Luis Suárez hand-ball in Uruguay's match against Ghana.
With not much time left in the game, there was a scramble for the ball in Uruguay's penalty box, and the Uruguay goalie got caught off his line. A player for Ghana came up with the ball at about the same time and ripped a shot on line to score and give Ghana a go-ahead goal. Uruguayan forward, Luis Suárez was the only player in a position to stop the ball from going in, BUT the only way he could do, which was the he did it, was use his hands. A BIG NO-NO in soccer if you aren't the goalie. The punishment for a deliberate hand-ball is a red-card, which he was given. On top of that, it was a penalty in the penalty box, which meant a penalty kick for Ghana. The Ghana player missed the penalty kick, and Uruguay would go on to win the game in penalty kicks.
It's not this in game sequence that bothers me. It is the subsequent/post-game reaction from much of the world that bothers me. Following the game, people were demanding fines, suspensions, and banishment for Luis Suárez, and that's just right! Think of if this way, when a basketball team is down by a little, with not enough time in the game, what do they do to hopefully get back into the game? They foul. They stop the clock and force the other team to make their free throws. If the plan goes accordingly, the losing team get's back in it. What Suárez did was not different. It was a play equivalent to that of the intentional foul in basketball.
To take it step further, examination of punishment must happen too. In basketball, when you foul, the punishment is the proper level of punishment in the form a foul is added to the player's stat sheet for the game. Following this it's up to the other team to make their free throws and it's not their opponents fault if they can't, nor should the be demonized for it. Same goes for this incident in the world cup. The penalty for a deliberate hand-ball is red card. Suárez received a red card. The penalty for a penalty committed in the penalty box is a penalty kick. Ghana was granted a penalty kick. ALL THE NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT punishments were doled out. From there, it was up to Ghana to make the penalty kick and it's not Suárez or Uruguay's fault the player chose to take the kick could seal the deal.
Also, and it's unfortunate to say this, but I think part of the criticism resulted from Ghana being the last African team in the World Cup. NOW HOLD ON and let me explain what I mean before you say I'm a racist. What I mean is, the 2010 FIFA World Cup was held on the continent of Africa in the country of South Africa. With Ghana being the last team/country from the continent in it, and having gone so far, they kind of became the cup's cinderella team and the continent and a lot of the world rallied behind them. So when incidents played out the way they did, I think bitter continental nationalism and world-wide disgust took-over and people spoke before they thought. Which made the issue unfortunate.
But the facts don't lie. What Suárez did was wrong, but he received the proper punishment and nothing more was necessary thought it was being asked for by the rest of the world. It's unfortunate Ghana couldn't pull it out, but that's on them, not on Suárez.
No comments:
Post a Comment