User:Theodor Langhorne Franklin/Uruguay v Ghana (2010 FIFA World Cup)
Football match / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uruguay v Ghana was a football match between Uruguay and Ghana that was played on 2 July at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa. This quarterfinal match was the second round of the knockout phase of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Event | 2010 FIFA World Cup | ||||||
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Uruguay won 4–2 on penalties | |||||||
Date | July 2, 2010 (2010-07-02) | ||||||
Venue | Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa | ||||||
Man of the Match | Diego Forlán | ||||||
Referee | Olegário Benquerença | ||||||
Attendance | 84,017 | ||||||
Weather | 13°C | ||||||
Uruguay qualified for the World Cup out of the CONMEBOL region. They won their World Cup group with two wins and a draw. In the round of 16 they defeated South Korea 2–1 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1970. Ghana qualified for the tournament out of the CAF region. The finished second in their group with a win, draw and loss; they won a goal difference tie-breaker over Australia (0 to −3) to advance. In the round of 16 they defeated the United States 2–1 in extra time making them only the third African team to qualify for the quarterfinals; no African team had advanced to the semifinals.
Just before halftime, Ghana's Sulley Muntari scored the game's first goal on a 35-yard shot that curved into the left-hand corner. Diego Forlán tied the game in the 55th minute with a 25-yard free kick into the top corner. The game was tied 1–1 after regulation and went to extra time. At the end of extra time Uruguay's Luis Suárez controversially and blatantly blocked the shot with his hands[1] off of the goal line to save what would have been the game winner.[2] Ghana was awarded a penalty kick and Suárez was sent off. Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty kick off the crossbar and the game went into a shootout. Uruguay won the shootout 4–2 and Ghana was eliminated from the tournament.
The foul that originated the free kick that ended with Suarez handball never existed. Jorge Fucile was at least 10 feet away of Kwadwo Asamoah, when the later took a dive just in front of the that was a mere 20-feet from the play. At the end, justice was done: Ghana lost the game.
After the game, front page headlines in the African press summarized Ghana's and Africa's loss.[3] There was also much discussion over the Suárez handball. Suárez was unapologetic and claimed he made "the save of the tournament".[2] He was labeled a villain[4] and a cheat,[5] but was also called a hero for his self-sacrifice.[1] He was given an automatic one-game suspension for his red card. Uruguay lost their semifinal to the Netherlands 3–2 and then lost the third place game to Germany 3–2. Forlán won the Golden Ball as the best player in the tournament. Ghana earned US$14 million in prize money; Uruguay earned $18 million. After the tournament, Uruguay advanced from 16th to 4th in the FIFA rankings and Ghana advanced from 32nd to 23rd.