Uruguay meet again at WC after 2010 drama

DOHA. — Ghana and Uruguay meet at the FIFA World Cup today in a repeat of one of the tournament’s most contentious games.

The match kicks-off at 5pm (Zimbabwean time).

“It was a really, really long time ago,” Ghana coach Otto Addo said.

Maybe so, but to many Ghanaians, the quarter-final defeat to Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup is still a raw and painful memory.

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez’s deliberate handball on the goal-line at the end of extra time denied Ghana a certain goal and a place in history as the first African team to reach the semis. Suarez was sent off for the handball but celebrated wildly on the sidelines when Asamoah Gyan hit the resulting penalty off the crossbar. Uruguay won the ensuing penalty shoot-out.

To make it worse, Suarez boasted after the 2010 game: “Truth is, it was worth it.”

Twelve years later, Ghana now have a chance to settle the score. By beating Uruguay in their final Group H match, Ghana would advance to the round of 16, while knocking Uruguay out of the tournament.

Though the match in Al Wakrah has been circled as one to watch ever since the World Cup draw was made in April, Addo tried his best to cast is as a “normal game.”

“I’m not really thinking about revenge,” he said, adding he remembered watching Ghana’s agonising loss on TV in 2010. “But it’s 12 years ago and now it’s a different match with a different approach. So I don’t see it as a revenge.” Ghana, who squeezed out a thrilling 3-2 win over South Korea in their last game, must win again in Al Wakrah to be certain of going past the group stage for the first time since 2010.