The rules are the rules. Luis Suárez, a striker, did not have to think as he batted a sure goal away from the line. He did the crime and he would do the time but he saved the World Cup for Uruguay — and he broke the heart of Africa.
Has this ever happened before, in any sport, where an entire continent was putting its hopes, its prayers, its soul, into a melee in front of a soccer goal?
Dozens of countries, so disparate, so far removed from each other, were surely wishing for Ghana to become the first African nation to reach the semifinals of the World Cup.
Ghana had the support of Nelson Mandela, the former president, now 91, who sent a letter to the Ghanaian federation saying that the entire continent wished success to the last African team. The South African team became the first host not to make it out of the first round, so all around Africa people became honorary Ghanaians after Ghana ousted the United States, fair and square, last Saturday.
But now all of Africa is gone, done in by an exchange that favored Uruguay. This was no Hand of God, so dubbed by Diego Maradona, after he swatted home a goal on the fly for Argentina in the semifinals of 1986. In that prehistoric age, the officials did not have a clue that Diego had made his deal with the devil, although the English defenders certainly knew.
The swat by Suárez had the smell of sulfur to it, no deities involved. He performed his handball on the goal line with the entire field watching him. He saved the game for Uruguay. He cuffed a continent as surely as he batted away the goal.
Suárez reacted in the first minute of injury time of the second overtime period, meaning the players had gone 120 official minutes and then nearly another one. Ghana was swarming the Uruguay goal. And Suárez stood on the line and knocked the ball away.
But was it cheating — or was it a cynical trade under the rules of a sport in which goals do not happen very easily? Suárez had no time to reason it out, but he is a professional, he knows the score.
He is 23 years old, plays for Ajax in the Netherlands, and he had to know there was a leeway in the law of soccer that allowed him to take a red card, an automatic expulsion and banishment from at least the next match. But at least there will be a next game. Uruguay will go on to play the Netherlands in the semifinals next Tuesday in Cape Town. Ghana is done. Africa is done.
The drama afterward was not inevitable, although it seemed that way. The trade Suárez arranged in an instant was his expulsion for a penalty kick for Ghana, no automatic, ever. It’s not a fair exchange but it is the rule of the sport.
Moments later, Asamoah Gyan whacked the ball off the crossbar, up, up and away. The 1-1 draw went into penalty kicks and Uruguay won, 4-2. Africa will not reach the semifinals this time.
For a time in those final furious seconds, the vuvuzelas seemed to die down because the fans were actually watching the match and reacting the way fans have always reacted in this sport of very few goals. They oohed and they ahhed and they roared and then they groaned.
Even as Suárez was sent off the field, the fans in the stadium knew they had been deprived, and surely they would say cheated. But that’s the trade. Touch the ball on purpose, bat away a goal, and the other team has a pretty good chance to make a penalty kick. Should the referee have the right to wave an automatic goal? That’s for the folks from FIFA to take up when they discuss the possibility of electronic surveillance or more referees at their next rules meeting later in the month.
The only thing left for Ghana was how it would react. After the players picked themselves up off the floor, Ghana officials said they had no recourse to protest.
And Uruguay Coach Óscar Tabárez noted that Suárez would be penalized by missing the next game, and that was a fair price for the red card.
One lingering question is whether the ball crossed the line before Suárez touched it, but since world soccer does not provide for goal-line officials or electronic surveillance or chips in the ball, there is no provision for review.
Ghana’s gracious acceptance matched the kindness that has marked this South African World Cup. Now Africa has no team left in this tournament, but its last team played well, and when it lost, it lost with grace. That memory should last as long as the result.
