My favourite game: Uruguay v Ghana, World Cup 2010 quarter-final
18-Mar-2020 11:59:23 | The Guardian
I was in the stadium to see Luis Suárez break Ghanaian hearts with his handball. It was cheating, but also an understandable act of self-sacrifice
Almost a decade on, the 2010 World Cup is recalled as a tournament of low-scoring matches, played out amid the distracting honk of vuvuzelas. As is usually the case, the host showed its best and most welcoming side, rendering happy memories to its visitors only to leave a disappointing legacy for South Africa itself.
Every tournament, though, will throw up at least one segue of incredible drama, of unlikely and since-forgotten heroes, skulduggery from villains and adrenaline-surging plot twists. The rest of the quarter-final between Ghana and Uruguay was decent enough. The climax to the 120 minutes made the night unforgettable.
Fine goals were scored by Sulley Muntari and Diego Forlán, but it was not a classic, in keeping with much of the rest of the fare on show during that 30 days. Luis Suárez’s handball, and the subsequent penalty drama, meant it ended up as a tale of the bad guys running off into the sunset, chortling at their ill-gotten gains.
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