Justifying Suarez’s Handball Against Ghana [A Page in World Cup History]

Luis Suarez became an overnight hero for Uruguay after he used his hands to keep the ball away from the goal line. Under regular circumstances, using your hands to control the ball’s movement in soccer is frowned upon and penalized by a yellow card and a free kick for the other team.

The score was tied at one point between Uruguay and Ghana in the dying minutes of over time when Ghana’s offense bombarded the Uruguayans’ penalty area. Ghana’s players headed the ball and it looked like it was going to be in the net. However, Luis Suarez was right behind the goal line and used his hands to keep the ball from scoring. 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 with too much force, sending the ball hit the top of the cross bar and missing 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 a penalty shootout that broke the hearts of many Ghanaian supporters… and the whole continent of Africa. Watch the video below in reverse angle to see one of the most dramatic finishes in World Cup history.

A lot of people think Suarez acted unfairly  by using his hands to keep the ball away from the net, but it was actually just good, strategic, football. He committed a foul and got penalized for it. The ref did the right thing by sending Suarez off the game and giving Ghana a 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. Ghanaian supporters are upset because their team got knocked out, but it would be a different story if someone on their team did the same.

Suarez really had nothing to lose by using his hands to control the ball at that point in the game. He knew the ball was going into the net if he did not knock the ball away with his hands. If the ball went in, there really was no time for Uruguay to score another goal to even things up and would eliminate them from the World Cup. By using his hands, not only did  he not allow the ball to go into the net, Suarez also created an opportunity for Uruguay’s goal keeper to stop the ball from the penalty kick. Suarez ‘s actions made it slightly harder for Ghana to win. It was not Suarez’ fault that Asamoah Gyan did not score 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 World Cup history. Because of his handball, Uruguay now will now play the Netherlands in the semi-final. Even if they do 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. Only time will tell.

Besides writing for Lions Den U, Mr. Baller also writes his own blog called The Baller News. He likes to posts random cool links to his blog. For all the latest sports updates, you might want to follow him on Twitter.