Re: Uruguay v Ghana
Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 10:11 pmWell I for one am well chuffed that Uruguay went through and I thought they thoroughly deserved it.
If you want to go down the cheating route look no further than John Mensa (so glad he missed his penner) and the lad Gyan (who missed his penner in extra time).
Both these players went down like they had been seriously injured - Mensah claimed he'd been hit in the throat - we all saw it was nothing - and Gyan went tumbling in the box when tackled - what was a quality challenge, thankfully the ref didn't give it and when he eventually returned to his feet he was running around freely enough in seconds.
A shame Gyan had to cheat because he is a strong and determined athlete, who would be a really good striker if, along with the rest of Ghanaian side, was a little more composed in front of goal. For all their effort they still have a naivety about them like most African sides, but I felt that Uruguay were well disciplined and had that bit of added quality.
Equally they should have had a clear penalty late on when Panstill clearly tripped Abreu but nothing was given. And most of the good chances fell to Uruguay, Suarez should have walked of that pitch at 90 mins having bagged a couple instead of seeing red after 120 mins - either way he ironically still walks off the hero after his goal line 'save'. He did remarkably well to stop the first effort legitimately, but had to use his hands to stop the follow up. Yes it is cheating but who wouldn't have done that in his situation, there's something about the circumstances which led to his red as being acceptable for me unlike Mensah and Gyan feigning injury to try and trick the referee.
Thats the thing Suarez was not trying to trick anyone he just did what he had to do and thats the difference.
On the subject of Suarez, I'm sure the majority thought he would be a waste of money when a thread was started about him earlier on in the competition, but I think he has all the right qualities and attributes a striker should have. He's strong and slippery with a typical predatory instinct. His movement is excellent and he loses defenders with ease in order to create that half a yard - tonight was not his night from a goalscoring perspective but I don't blame him for what he did at the death - indeed he had tracked back to defend when other strikers may have felt it was someone else’s responsibility.
I think he'd be excellent at City. I'd like Ozil and Sanchez to join him!
Final word on Ghana - well ITV's usual amateurish attitude, assuming we'd all adopted them as our second team didn't inspire me to will them on. I watched them initially against Australia when a Gyan penner earned them anything but a well deserved point against the 10 man Aussies, they put up a much better display against Germany but they've scored very few goals from open play which I'm afraid is the overriding factor here - still got a way to go to be a genuine threat at world level.
If you want to go down the cheating route look no further than John Mensa (so glad he missed his penner) and the lad Gyan (who missed his penner in extra time).
Both these players went down like they had been seriously injured - Mensah claimed he'd been hit in the throat - we all saw it was nothing - and Gyan went tumbling in the box when tackled - what was a quality challenge, thankfully the ref didn't give it and when he eventually returned to his feet he was running around freely enough in seconds.
A shame Gyan had to cheat because he is a strong and determined athlete, who would be a really good striker if, along with the rest of Ghanaian side, was a little more composed in front of goal. For all their effort they still have a naivety about them like most African sides, but I felt that Uruguay were well disciplined and had that bit of added quality.
Equally they should have had a clear penalty late on when Panstill clearly tripped Abreu but nothing was given. And most of the good chances fell to Uruguay, Suarez should have walked of that pitch at 90 mins having bagged a couple instead of seeing red after 120 mins - either way he ironically still walks off the hero after his goal line 'save'. He did remarkably well to stop the first effort legitimately, but had to use his hands to stop the follow up. Yes it is cheating but who wouldn't have done that in his situation, there's something about the circumstances which led to his red as being acceptable for me unlike Mensah and Gyan feigning injury to try and trick the referee.
Thats the thing Suarez was not trying to trick anyone he just did what he had to do and thats the difference.
On the subject of Suarez, I'm sure the majority thought he would be a waste of money when a thread was started about him earlier on in the competition, but I think he has all the right qualities and attributes a striker should have. He's strong and slippery with a typical predatory instinct. His movement is excellent and he loses defenders with ease in order to create that half a yard - tonight was not his night from a goalscoring perspective but I don't blame him for what he did at the death - indeed he had tracked back to defend when other strikers may have felt it was someone else’s responsibility.
I think he'd be excellent at City. I'd like Ozil and Sanchez to join him!
Final word on Ghana - well ITV's usual amateurish attitude, assuming we'd all adopted them as our second team didn't inspire me to will them on. I watched them initially against Australia when a Gyan penner earned them anything but a well deserved point against the 10 man Aussies, they put up a much better display against Germany but they've scored very few goals from open play which I'm afraid is the overriding factor here - still got a way to go to be a genuine threat at world level.