Uruguay survives Ghana in a game that has almost everything
Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — Oscar Tabarez had a lot of words to choose from when it came to describing his country’s penalty-shootout win over Ghana in a World Cup quarterfinal Friday.
Incredible. Improbable. Impossible. They all fit.
The one he finally settled on, though, was “lucky.”
“I am the coach of the team and I am a professional. But even so I lack the necessary calm to carry out an objective analysis of the game,” he said.
“We were lucky. And winners are always lucky. As well as playing well, luck is important.”
So is grit and determination, both of which Uruguay displayed in abundance in rallying from a halftime deficit, holding off Ghana through the final manic seconds of extra time and finally winning, 4-2, on penalty shots.
It was both the best match of this World Cup and the most important win by a Uruguayan team in four decades, because it sent the South Americans to the World Cup semifinals – where they will meet the Netherlands next week — for the first time since 1970. And that touched off spontaneous celebrations throughout the soccer-mad country.
“Many of the people celebrating in the streets have never lived through a moment like this,” Tabarez said. “I hope they celebrate for three or four days.”
For Ghana, meanwhile, the mood wasn’t so much one of mourning as one of pride. Playing in just its second World Cup and missing its best player, midfielder Michael Essien, the West African nation was denied a berth in the semifinals by a handball and the height of the crossbar.
“We didn’t deserve to lose in such a way,” said Milovan Rajevac,” Ghana’s Serbian-born coach. “It is very difficult for me to talk about this match. But we are very proud of what we accomplished. I am very proud of our players.”
After finishing 90 minutes tied, 1-1, on goals by Uruguay’s Diego Forlan and Ghana’s Sulley Muntari, the teams played through a 30-minute extra period that had just seconds to go when Ghana mounted a last charge.
A scramble in front of the net caught Uruguayan keeper Fernando Muslera out of position, so striker Luis Suarez moved to the goal line, where he first stopped a Stephen Appiah shot with his knee then put his arms up to swat Dominic Adiyiah’s header away with both hands.
That earned Suarez a red card and Ghana a penalty kick, something the Africans excelled at in this tournament. But this time Asamoah Gyan’s shot skipped off the top of the crossbar, sending the game to a shootout.
And that’s where Muslera came up big, twice guessing correctly to make diving saves on shots by John Mensah and Adiyiah. So when hulking Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu softly tapped his shot to the back of the net, the celebration began.
“The way the game finished was incredible,” Forlan said. “Instead of scoring goals, Suarez saved one. He won us the game.”
That Uruguay and Ghana would meet in the quarterfinals, much less play a memorable match, seemed unlikely when the World Cup began. The Africans, the youngest team in the tournament, won just once and scored just twice — both times on penalty kicks by Gyan — in group play. But they were the only African team to reach the second round, and when they beat the U.S. in extra time they were adopted by the continent.
If Ghana was the hope of its continent, however, Uruguay was an afterthought on its, needing to beat Costa Rica in a playoff just to earn an invitation to South Africa. And even when it rolled into the quarterfinals unbeaten, it couldn’t escape the long shadows cast by neighboring Argentina and Brazil.
But Forlan said Uruguay’s arduous path through qualifying steeled it for the World Cup.
“Qualifying in South America is really tough,” he said. “We’re playing teams with good players. We play in the altitude, we play in warm weather, in cold.
“We knew once we qualified for the World Cup, it was going to be different. So we focused on each game. Every game was difficult. You have to play to win.”
And now Uruguay, which a year ago wasn’t even among the best four teams in South America, is one of the best four at the World Cup.
“There are no words for that,” Forlan told reporters.
Well, maybe one.
“We weren’t lucky today,” Rajevac said. “That’s sports. Today we congratulate Uruguay because they were the lucky ones.”
