Wow!

Originally posted by Palynka
Suarez must be incredibly happy he hand-balled that...

you didn't see him after? he when from being distraught to ecstatic in one kick of the ball. i'm happy for him. maybe he’ll be back for the final and net a hat-trick 😉

shame though, he had chances to win it in normal time, not even counting the couple of times were they got into great positions but shot instead of walking it into the net. a bit more thought process in attack and hey probably would've won easily.

Originally posted by trev33
the ref did give a pen under the posts. it's not his fault the ghanian player flapped.
suarez did the right thing, now he misses the first semi final of a world cup uruguay has been in, in decades. it wasn't cheating imo.
any rugby player would've done the same in the hope that they missed the kick.

the better team won though.

I don't want to get embroiled in another "Waaah. Soccer is gay! blah blah blah" 'discussion', but really, this is the type of thing that makes people from other sports think football is a waste of time.
Ghana created a goal scoring opportunity, and did everything they had to to make the scoreline 2-1. Then Suarez decided to do a volleyball set...

I can't understand how football fans can take this type thing in their stride. I'm obviously biassed, as I wanted an African team to continue on, but it's really disgusting what happened there.

You say a rugby player would've done the same thing, but you are wrong.
The difference is he would've been sent off AND the ref would have awarded a penalty try, not just a penalty, meaning seven points for the opposing team who then would have to play with one less player, which in rugby is also a much greater handicap than football, as rugby is much more structured around a full team.
So no, I can't see this type of thing happening in too many other sports...

Originally posted by Crowley
I don't want to get embroiled in another "Waaah. Soccer is gay! blah blah blah" 'discussion', but really, this is the type of thing that makes people from other sports think football is a waste of time.
Ghana created a goal scoring opportunity, and did everything they had to to make the scoreline 2-1. Then Suarez decided to do a volleyball set...

I can't ...[text shortened]... ll team.
So no, I can't see this type of thing happening in too many other sports...

it's the last seconds of the quarterfinal of a world cup... if the other team scores you're out or you take the red card, give up the pen and have a slight chance of progression. most players in all sports would take the red, there really isn't anything to lose and a whole lot to gain. i've seen rugby players trip their opponent when a try was a certainly and take the sin binning. happens quite often.

as for rugby, it's not exactly the cleanest sport in the world. you might see soccer players diving and faking injuries but you certainly don't see any eye gouging or nearly as many tackles intended to hurt the other player.

and what about 'blood-gate'? european cup semi final, last few minutes and a couple of points down. what did they do? that's much worse than what suarez did.

Suarez: Player and Cheat of the match.

I can't believe you actually thought that handball was good. It just shows bad sport by the player. It shows a lack of morals no one can understand. It shows disrespect for every other player on the pitch. A person worthy of that name would try to head the ball instead of handball it like that, and take the defeat like a man if he missed.

You say every player would have done that. So what? It remains a filthy little cheat. I understand you were supporting Uruguay and all, but really, glorifying such a cheat just takes away all your credibility.

Shameless I call it. Still ghana can only blame themselves for not scoring the penalty. If they had the better team would have won and the correct team would have progressed.

Originally posted by trev33
it's the last seconds of the quarterfinal of a world cup... if the other team scores you're out or you take the red card, give up the pen and have a slight chance of progression. most players in all sports would take the red, there really isn't anything to lose and a whole lot to gain. i've seen rugby players trip their opponent when a try was a certainly and and a couple of points down. what did they do? that's much worse than what suarez did.

See, I still think you don't quite get my point.

In rugby, Uruguay would have lost that game, which would have been the 'right' outcome in that situation, because the rules allow the ref to rectify that kind of bad sportsmanship. Football needs to take a page out of rugby's rulebook...


Rugby is a hard, physical game, so comparing that physicality - and the bad stuff that can happen on the pitch sometimes - to football serves no purpose.

But, since you bring it up - continuing on your point:
If Daniel Carter had tripped Bryan Habana on the way towards the try line with less than a minute remaining in a World Cup quarter final with four points in it, the ref would have given the boks a penalty try, the boks would have won (rightly so), Carter would be sent off in disgrace and would then be CRUCIFIED by all the fans, including New Zealanders and all the world media, because it's contrary to the 'spirit of the game'.

Originally posted by orion25
Suarez: Player and Cheat of the match.

I can't believe you actually thought that handball was good. It just shows bad sport by the player. It shows a lack of morals no one can understand. It shows disrespect for every other player on the pitch. A person worthy of that name would try to head the ball instead of handball it like that, and take the defeat li ...[text shortened]... penalty. If they had the better team would have won and the correct team would have progressed.

Absolutely.

You probably just would have liked to face Ghana in the semis, eh?

Why is he a cheat? He didn't protest, he didn't try to fake it, didn't seem to try to con the ref somehow. He handballed it and accepted the consequences of the rules. That's not cheating.

Originally posted by Crowley
Absolutely.

You probably just would have liked to face Ghana in the semis, eh?

Ghana were better and fitter the whole match. They deserved to win. But, to me, facing a fit and strong Ghana seems just as hard as facing this Uruguay.

Also I don't like the cheating-style of play south american teams generally have (except argentina, who seem to behave reasonably in this WC), plus it would be nice to see an outsider have some success for once.

Originally posted by Palynka
Why is he a cheat? He didn't protest, he didn't try to fake it, didn't seem to try to con the ref somehow. He handballed it and accepted the consequences of the rules. That's not cheating.

It's not cheating, it's lack of honour!!

Originally posted by orion25
Suarez: Player and Cheat of the match.

I can't believe you actually thought that handball was good. It just shows bad sport by the player. It shows a lack of morals no one can understand. It shows disrespect for every other player on the pitch. A person worthy of that name would try to head the ball instead of handball it like that, and take the defeat li ...[text shortened]... penalty. If they had the better team would have won and the correct team would have progressed.

do you know why us irish bitched so much about the henry handball? because the ref didn't see it and we felt robbed. the ref did see this and he gave out the appropriate punishment to suarez who was only doing the best for his team. if he didn’t think he would get his head to it he was right to use his hands imo.

what match did you watch? ghana were far from the best team, they had a good 20 min spell at the end of the first half and a decent second half of extra time but other than that uruguay were clearly the better side and if they had been a little better in front of goal would've won easily.

Originally posted by Crowley
I don't want to get embroiled in another "Waaah. Soccer is gay! blah blah blah" 'discussion', but really, this is the type of thing that makes people from other sports think football is a waste of time.
Ghana created a goal scoring opportunity, and did everything they had to to make the scoreline 2-1. Then Suarez decided to do a volleyball set...

I can't ...[text shortened]... ll team.
So no, I can't see this type of thing happening in too many other sports...

Get off your rugby high horse, there's also cheating and plenty of violence in rugby.

Also, football is also very structured around a full team. I don't know how you can even compare whose handicap is greatest.

I don't want to get all philosophical on you guys, but taking this further:
What message does this send out to the kids around the world?

"Bad sportsmanship and borderline cheating is OK, as long as you go through to the semi-final. Don't worry about that red card, just call it the 'Volleyball Skills Of God' after the world cup and we'll all have a laugh about it..."

That's just not cricket!

Originally posted by Palynka
Get off your rugby high horse, there's also cheating and plenty of violence in rugby.

Also, football is also very structured around a full team. I don't know how you can even compare whose handicap is greatest.

God, do all you football fans make a point of missing the point?

There's LOTS of 'cheating' or 'chancing it' and violence in rugby, yes.

The point I'm making is: Other sports (in this case, rugby) punishes the offender and the offence appropriately.

Originally posted by Crowley
I don't want to get all philosophical on you guys, but taking this further:
What message does this send out to the kids around the world?

"Bad sportsmanship and borderline cheating is OK, as long as you go through to the semi-final. Don't worry about that red card, just call it the 'Volleyball Skills Of God' after the world cup and we'll all have a laugh about it..."

That's just not cricket!

If we disagree that this is cheating or bad sportsmanship then we also disagree that's the message this is sending out to the kids around the world.

This has happened many times (maybe not at a WC quarterfinal) and in most of the times the result is a red card and a penalty goal. Making it a choice for an automatic goal would lead to endless discussions whether it was an automatic goal or not if the handball wasn't so clearly on the line. So it's really not an option, IMO.

Originally posted by trev33
do you know why us irish bitched so much about the henry handball? because the ref didn't see it and we felt robbed. the ref did see this and he gave out the appropriate punishment to suarez who was only doing the best for his team. if he didn’t think he would get his head to it he was right to use his hands imo.

what match did you watch? ghana were far f ...[text shortened]... rly the better side and if they had been a little better in front of goal would've won easily.

Don't be silly trev. What suarez did was something only a filthy person with no morals would do. It's a tragic manifestation of how rotten our society is. How can taking one for the team be taken over showing integrity and behaving "like a man"? I just can't believe you thought this was a good attitude. Would you have done that? I wouldn't.

More: if any dutch player except the goalie had done that I would quit supporting them immediately - there is no place for this in my concept of sport.

About the match. Ghana weren't clearly better, true. But Uruguay also were far from better. Neither team had real chances, as can be seen by how the goals went in, a shot from distance and a free kick. I was impressed with the hard work of Ghana's midfield. Not only were they quicker and stronger, but also showed more technical ability. Ghana also showed more will to win the game, as can be seen by the extra-time which was the only period where they were clearly better. This was the difference between the teams and the reason why I think Ghana deserved the win.