Just half-hour earlier than the sport ended, Suarez was an album of pleasure, chatting along with his teammates within the dugout, taking part in round with the help workers, content material after 64 minutes of taking part in his finest soccer of this World Cup. The Ghana sport was maybe the swap that flicked the very best out of Suarez. Slow and sloppy, invisible and inert till this sport, he rediscovered his classic, maybe the 2010 classic. He was a remodeled man, sliding into tackles, chasing the ball wildly, shoving and shovelling previous defenders. There was a beautiful nutmeg close to the byline. The marker Inaki Williams was simply a few yards away, however he embarrassed him with the cheekiest of nutmegs.

Despite the win, Uruguay exit the World Cup with Ghana. @adidasfootball | #FIFAWorldCup

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 2, 2022

But earlier than you come to Suarez, you must pause for Andrew Ayew. When he lined up for the penalty, he had the entire weight of Ghana’s footballing historical past on his left foot. He hopped, stopped and swished on the ball. The ball tipped off the sting of his boot and rolled meekly into the protected palms of Uruguayan goalkeeper Sergio Rocher. Ayew stood thunderstruck.

He hung his head in disgrace and plunged into the bottom in gradual movement. Ghana’s first shot at liberation led to tears. And of all of the folks Ayew, one of many few remaining members of the 2010 ‘Hand of the Devil” fixture, watching all the drama unfold from the dugout as an unused substitute. He, like Asamoah Gyan, his idol who missed the spot kick from Suarez’s handball, would have a lifetime to remorse the slip-up.

Andre Ayew reacts after his penalty is saved by Uruguay’s Sergio Rochet. (REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo)

Ghana froze — within the silence among the many Ghanian followers, you can hear the wilt of a thousand hearts. The vocal supporters, in a riot of color, singing and dancing till that second, stood numbed. The gamers wilted, the wandered aimlessly. Until this second, Suraez was tenting of their heads. But from this second, he was to torment them on the sector too. Of all of the merciless scripts, this was the one Ghanians feared the worst. To be spooked by Suarez. To be spooked eternally by Suarez. For generations, or maybe for an eternity.

Post the spilled penalty, they unravelled. Seizing the second of Ghanian daze, the bleach-haired Giorgian de Arrascaeta scored twice within the house of six minutes. Both targets originated from outrageously clumsy defending (was it even defending?). The ball from deep, pierced via two defenders, every presuming that the opposite would clear the ball. Suarez revved up via the left, bent in sharply and unpacked a stinging shot on aim.

The saving grace was that Suarez didn’t rating, as a substitute goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi blocked it. But Arrascaeta pounced onto the rebound and nudged the ball into the online with the flap of his head. Six minutes later, Suarez-Arrascaeta mixed once more. Suarez floated the ball to Arrascaeta, a wonderful lob. The latter swung the volley dwelling. It was a aim of pure technical perfection, from Suarez’s lob, candy and opulent, designed in an artist’s palette. The execution befitted the help. As the ball dropped, so did the physique of Arrascaeta, and simply earlier than it kissed the bottom, he twisted his physique and struck it on the total. The ball first swung away earlier than it modified its course and whistled previous Ati-Zigi, unable to guage the trail of the ball.

To irritate their ache and agony, Suarez would rejoice wildly beside the touchline. After the second aim, he veered in the direction of the Ghanian part of followers and clapped, flicked thumbs up and gesticulated to boo him louder.

At the stroke of the sixty fourth minute, Suarez was taken off, to resounding applause from the Uruguayan enclosure and muffled silence from the Ghanian aspect. But even in his absence Suarez nonetheless loomed on the pitch, as if the Ghanian gamers had been seeing him in every single place. They gave the impression to be operating round a maze with out an exit.
The temper initially was contrasting. A screech of boos greeted Luis Suarez onto the bottom. Ever the pantomime villain he’s, he bared his enamel and smiled. When the boos reached a crescendo, he blew kisses their method, fuelling extra angst and whipping up extra recollections of the heartbreaking evening in Johannesburg. Ghanians by no means forgave him for what Suarez then claimed was the “new hand of God moment” or as Ghanian journalist put it the opposite day, the “Hand of Devil”.

Even if that they had forgiven him, Suarez made certain that he whipped up the outdated, bitter recollections. He began the match, wore the captain’s armband and took the primary contact of the ball. He is likely to be within the autumnal fade of his profession, however the impishness, the pantomime-ness has remained intact.

In the top, the prayers of the Ghanians had been answered. They noticed Suarez cry, however not in the best way that they had prayed or wished for. They had been crying too. Had Ghana received or drawn the sport, they’d have certified to the final 16. But maybe, within the similitude of their destiny, Ghana may have discovered peace with Suarez and Uruguay. Or granted him forgiveness ultimately.