World Cup 2010

Well, it's over and done, and another year of seriously boring matches, a few gems of matches, and a good dose of controversy.

First and foremost I think Luis Suarez deserves to burn in Hell for degrading the sport of football to his pathetic level after deliberately hand-balling a well fought-for Ghana goal which would have saw Ghana playing Holland, then likely Germany for 3rd place. Both teams were tied at 2 all well into extra time when Ghana got a rebound past the keeper. Two Uruguay players were camped out on the goal line and when the first missed heading it away, Suarex batted the ball away with both hands. A handball around goal is typically an automatic Red card and match ban for the offender, plus a penalty kick. Now in cases where a goal isn't clearly able to be determined (such as a ball hitting an arm before reaching the keeper) this is sufficient, but for a player to make a deliberate act at stopping a goal by accepting a red card, that is absolutely against the spirit of the game. The sad thing was that Ghana's striker missed the penalty kick which meant the game went to penalties and Uruguay eeked out an advance. It doesn't get more deliberate than this:
http://www.sportpost.com/video/view/Uruguay+hand+ball+and+Red+Card+vs+Ghana+World+Cup

Uruguay's coach defended the red card stating the player has been adequately penalized and he had no way of knowing that Ghana would have missed the penalty kick. That's completely beside the point. The player knew full well that ball was going in, and that there was at least a chance that Ghana would miss their penalty shot.

FIFA is apparently considering allowing for penalty goals after this incident, but I doubt they'll change the rules.

There are also calls for an introduction to technological aides for referees after the Germany - England match where England was very unluckily denied an equalizer goal just before half-time when a shot off the crossbar landed a good foot or so behind the goal line, then bounced back up to the cross bar, and bounced back on the goal line before the German keeper recovered it and cleared it downfield with a hurried kick. The referee had not seen the first bounce behind the goal line. While Germany went on to win 4-2, it's interesting to think what a difference in momentum there might have been had England equalized before the break.

Still I'm sure more than a few fans that travelled to South Africa might have felt a bit ripped off with some of the games. Notably the Spain vs. Portugal first round game where the teams were already 1-2 so they played to a nil-nil draw to advance. (yawn) I don't think I could have sat to 90+ minutes of continuous droning from those bloody Vuvuzelas. IMO, Africans have a few screws loose when it comes to celebrating during a game, but I guess it beats gunfire. The Spain - Holland final wasn't particularly entertaining, decided only in the last few minutes of extra time.

For me, the match of the tournament was the 3rd place bout between Germany and Uruguay. Uruguay went up 2-1 with what I consider one of the best strikes of the tournament from Diego Forlan. He didn't hit the ball square, and instead of heading at the net it headed at high-speed for the turf and after a rocket of a bounce, streaked into the net well within reach of an awestruck (or screened) German keeper. Germany managed to equalize shortly after, but right up until the last 10 minutes Germany appeared to have run out of steam and were looking pretty desperate to fend off constant presses from Uruguay. Their final goal in the dying minutes was sheer magic. Still one German player deserved a good slap across the back of the head for drawing a penalty during Uruguay's last desperate ghasp. Fortunately Forlan couldn't summon up the magic for his free kick, sending their last chance off the crossbar.