Yes, yes he did. But hang on, Dave Brockington disagrees:
No. He did the rational thing. It was perhaps not the sporting, moral, or ethical choice, and definitely the cynical choice, but given the nature of the match, he made the correct decision.
If he doesn’t act, the ball goes in, and Uruguay are out. Plain and simple. If he acts, there’s a small chance that he does not get spotted by the referee (again, see USA v Germany 2002). If he does get spotted and correctly sent off, there’s a chance that Ghana miss the penalty. The odds of both of those events occurring in that order are slim, but as luck would have it, did indeed occur. Suarez didn’t cheat, he operated within the rules of the game. Odds are Ghana would have converted the penalty, and we wouldn’t be discussing this. However, they didn’t, and continued to miss a couple more during the shootout.
In the ensuing 100+ comment thread a lot of people agree with Dave, making the comparison with basketball, where apparantly it’s accepted practise when you’re losing to start fouling a few minutes from time to break your opponent’s streak. You make the foul, you take the punishment if caught, it’s all in the rules and you’re not a cheater.
It’s the same sort of logic used by speeders everywhere. A co-worker of mine just the other day explained he was more than happy to pay the occasional fine for the priviledge of being home sooner, all part of the system and no great crime. The same again goes for tax cheats, who’d argue that fiddling the tax man is the rational thing to do and if you’re caught, pay the fines and fiddle again next year. And of course it turned out the entire financial system was populated by people who thought that the rules did not apply to them…
This sort of supposedly rational tradeoffs — where punishment is seen purely as the potential cost of a transaction rather than as a sanction — hollows out systems. If actions like Suarez’s last night are seen as understandable, even laudable or the right thing to do in the circumstances, this means more people will attempt it, rather than playing within the spirit of the game. Doing the convenient thing rather than the right thing might be endemic in basketball, but I don’t want to see it happen in football — or at least not more than it already has. What Suarez did was cheating, he didn’t make a rational tradeoff but got punished for breaking the rules and hopefully Holland will kick Uruguay out of the tournament next Tuesday…
P Money
July 4, 2010 at 5:56 amLuis Suarez is a F***** cheat! Had a Ghanaian player done the same and handballed a shot of the line to prevent a CERTAIN Uruguay goal and then Uruguay went on to miss the resulting penalty and then went on on penalties the same way Ghana did, I GUARANTEE that the Ghanaian player would not be labelled a hero or a non-cheat and there would not be an ounce of respect for them. So all those who support Suarez as a non-cheat or a hero is an absolute hypocrite!
As they say what goes around comes around, I hope the same happens to Uruguay and to the teams of those who condone cheating and support Suarez, dont complain then!
James
July 7, 2010 at 11:01 amI was having a discussion with my friend about this very incident.
It’s a game, it has rules, you use the rules to your advancement. As the quotation you used above says better than I could it’s not about morals it’s about winning a game. The rules don’t award a penalty goal and Suarez suffered the harshest punishment. You take the risks and get the payoff.
Comparing it to real-life situations, such as speeding where lives are at risk is incredible.
If Ghana score, there is no discussion. There is only one reason that Ghana are out and that is because Gyan lost his bottle.
If this situation arrives earlier in the game and the same thing happens, Ghana would’ve had 10/20 mins against 10 men and again there would be no discussion.
I felt sorry for Ghana, but if you’d have offered them a penalty in the 120th minute for a chance to get into the semi-finals at kick off they would’ve taken it.
Suarez is a national hero because in the split-second he assessed all options and has luck would have it, it was the right one.
That was alot longer than I intended and about 5 days later than it should’ve been.
slothmom
July 10, 2010 at 5:48 pmJames are you stupid? If this was a tactic it would make
Uruguay even more degrading. It shows no pride or technique. Absolutely not “World Cup” level. Taking advantage of the rules like that..in that situation…I’ve seen unpleasant plays in sports but this is far by one of the most disturbing. a prideless player and team.
National hero? wow… Well then many Uruguay supporters must be stupid enough to not realize “how they won”. Also its pretty useless explaining what “could” have happened in the game…and you don’t seem to realize that a PK doesn’t make up to a “100 percent goal” which is really dumb and blind of you.
rma
July 12, 2010 at 11:28 pmslothmom, why arent you outraged that the play started with a foul that wasnt and when the ball was kicked there were 2 players offside, but the ref didnt see it ?
the ref was horrible agaisnt uruguay in that whole game, thats a fact.
but lets move on to other things that happend in this world cup. Why arent you outraged at the kick to the chest that DeJong gave xavi alonso in the finals, and did not get awarded a red card ? Why arent you calling him a cheat ?
thats the most anit fairplay thing you can do.. and the guys in orange were the team that hit and fouled the most in this whole world cup.
yes im from Uruguay, and i dont apreciate being called stupid for following the rules of the game… you touch the ball with your hands, you get a red card. PERIOD Thats the rules of the game. HATE THE GAME NOT THE PLAYER.
bella
July 15, 2010 at 8:30 pmhow dare sum of u say luis suarez is a cheat! i doubt that anyone would eva risk theirselves getting sent off for ur country. luis suarez is very brave and a hero. i heard sumone say uruguay is a country of cheats and thats insulting to me! everyone seems to have forgotten harry kewels handball but ofcourse he’s from australia so noone calls him a cheat farout sum ppl can be soo ignorant