JAKARTA - The Urugay national team failed to advance to the last 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Victory over Ghana in the last match of the preliminary meant nothing.
The reason is, at the same time, South Korea also won over Portugal. The result made Korea accompany Portugal to the knockout phase of the 2022 World Cup.
Uruguay's failure brought up an old story. Still attached to the memories of Ghana supporters, when Luis Suarez acted up and took a reckless action using his hands to block Dominic Adiyiah's header into Uruguay's goal in Johannesburg, South Africa, a dozen years ago.
Suarez's action practically prevented Ghana's victory in extra time and at least kept the score 1-1.
Suarez was immediately rewarded with a red card for his actions and Ghana got a penalty kick, while the striker, who was still defending Ajax, was forced to watch warily from the edge of the aisle to the dressing room.
However, this reckless action turned into a significant sacrifice because Asamoah Gyan, who stepped forward as the executioner, found his ball hitting the crossbar and Suarez caught on camera expressing his joy for the failure at the mouth of the dressing room aisle.
Asamoah recently paid for his failure by doing a good job in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw lasted until the end of extra time.
However, goalkeeper Fernando Muslera then denied the execution of two Ghanaian executioners, John Mensah and Adiyiah, so that when Sebastien Abreu successfully converted the harvest style penalty, Uruguay locked a 4-2 penalty shootout victory and stepped into the semifinals.
What Suarez did at that time clearly extended Uruguay's breath at the 2010 World Cup, as well as prevented Ghana from becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals in this most prestigious football tournament.
In comments after the match, Suarez said that he had saved Uruguay and emphasized that he had no other choice but to use his hands. Suarez even had time to compare his actions with the God's Hand Goals from Diego Maradona.
12 years later, Ghana and Uruguay were reunited at the Qatar 2022 World Cup stage after the two teams were stationed by Group H.
The meeting of the two teams became even more dramatic, as it was scheduled to be their final match in the Group H stage.
The match became more important in determining the fate of the two, because Ghana already has three points and Uruguay is only one and has the status of a zero from the previous two appearances.
In a pre-match press conference, Suarez firmly stated that he did not regret what he did against Ghana 12 years ago.
This was conveyed by Suarez after being told by a Ghanaian journalist that in his country he has a label as a demon or diablo, and supporters of The Black Star want to retire the 35-year-old.
Suarez even insisted that even though he did this haram behavior, in the end it was not him that failed Ghana to qualify for the 2010 World Cup semifinals but the penalty resulting in his failed goal.
"I'm not (will) apologize for that, I did do handball, but it was Ghanaian players who failed to execute the penalty, not me," he said during a press conference session in Doha, Thursday, December 1.
"I may apologize if it injures the opponent for being thwarted and on a red card, but in that situation I got a red card and the referee also gave (Ghana) a penalty kick."
"It's not my fault, I didn't fail to execute the penalty. Even the failed player also said he would do the same thing I did in that situation. So it's not my responsibility," he continued, as quoted by Antara.
Although the question is that journalists from opposing countries, comments and answers from Suarez will later prove to be successful insinuations that put additional burdens on the minds of Ghanaian players for a meeting at Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah, Qatar, Friday night.
Unlike Uruguay, which has not won and has gone viral, Ghana actually entered the match with a relatively lighter burden, namely only chasing a draw to ensure it qualifys for the round of 16.
Uruguay, who must win if he wants to open a chance to qualify for the round of 16, is faced with a problem when goalkeeper Sergio Rochet is not clean enough to secure a wild ball from Jordan Ayew's shot and instead brought down Mohammed Kudus in the box.
Referee Daniel Siebert had to have a lengthy consultation with the video referee's assistant (VAR) to directly review the replay on the sidelines of the monitor until finally pointing to the spot awarding Ghana a penalty.
What happened later, not that Ghana opened the scoring but Ayew's penalty was too close to Rochet's reach and failed to get into the net.
Whether coincidentally or indeed in contact, it was as if comments from Suarez had entered the conscious nature of Ayew and Ghanaian players who faced the ball at the spot.
Uruguay and Suarez seem to present a new curse for Ghana, which is a bad feeling every time they get a penalty kick.
Ayew's failure seemed to hit the mentality of Ghana's players and on the contrary burned Uruguay's passion for taking over control of the game.
Until finally a cross from Darwin Nunez failed to be anticipated by two Ghanaians and the ball fell in front of Suarez who made a small hoax before firing a shot at the goal.
Goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi could actually counter Suarez's shot, but the ball was still vomiting and was immediately grabbed by Giorgian de Arrascaeta to open Uruguay's 1-0 advantage over Ghana in the 26th minute.
The goal further injected Uruguay's spirit which doubled it six minutes later when De Arrascaeta carefully used Suarez's reflection bait.
Uruguay almost got the opportunity to increase their 2-0 advantage, if only the demand for a penalty after Nunez was tackled by Daniel Amartey was granted by referee David Siebert.
But Uruguay is still ahead until Suarez can return to the bench a little calmer than 12 years ago which was full of worries and guilt.
The reason is, when Suarez was withdrawn, in another Group H match, South Korea was still held to a 1-1 draw by Portugal, which relatively controlled the game.
However, Suarez's smile turned bitter because in the first minute of extra time in the second half, South Korea won a 2-1 advantage over Portugal thanks to Hwang Hee-chan's goal at the Education City Stadium.
The big screen at Al Janoub Stadium featured the Group H standings which put South Korea in second place armed with 4-4 goal productivity over Uruguay's 2-2 even though both teams collected four points.
Uruguay continued to press and this time Ati-Zigi made a brilliant save over Edinson Cavani's sharp header a minute before normal time.
Meanwhile, Ghana is chasing goals that could further damage Uruguay's chances of qualifying, but Antoine Semenyo's shot was blocked by Sebastian Coates who installed Kamaldeen Sulemana's body and long-range shot was able to be countered by Rochet.
The match at the Education City Stadium ended early with a 2-1 victory bag by South Korea, while Uruguay continued to search for Ghana's defensive gap despite not bearing victory.
However, Ghana's supporters seemed so happy to mock Suarez for the 0-2 defeat, even though their own team also failed to qualify for the round of 16.
Originally, Ghana had successfully retired Suarez, who is now 35 years old from the World Cup stage. Unless Suarez wants to force himself to resign.
In the end, both Ghana and Uruguay failed to qualify for the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup and they both turned to ashes.
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