Uruguay have been the biggest villains of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. They sent home team Bafana Bafana packing in the Group Stages. If that wasn’t enough, they followed it by ending the hopes, in most controversial circumstances one might add, of the continent’s last team — whom the fans here had cheered as their own even naming them Baf-Ghana Baf-Ghana.
However, by the time they bowed out after a 2-3 loss to Holland in the semifinal here on Tuesday, even the fans that had vilified them started to grudgingly admire the spirit of the tiny nation of 3.5 million.
Minus injured captain and defensive stalwart Diego Lugano, and the supremely gifted suspended striker Luis Suarez, they still made the Dutch earn their win.
Suarez in a way best captures the Uruguayan spirit – their predecessors’ famed Garra, which has been on display in the Rainbow Nation. Suarez showed his goalkeeping skills in the 120th minute against and was promptly sent off. He called it the new ‘Hand of God’, but as a Ghanian fan later said, “It was the Hand of Evil.”
Suarez was vilified, called a cheat, wrongly so. Diego Maradona and Thierry Henry’s controversial goals will be classified as cheating, because the referee failed to spot them.
In Suarez’s case, he was perfectly aware that he would be sent off for his actions and still he did what the team need. He couldn’t have known Asamoah Gyan would miss the penalty. Ghana can complain that they should have been awarded a goal all they want, but the referee went by the rulebook. For most fans here that act was condemned more than it normally would because it ended the hopes of their team.
However, it’s hard to miss the heroic element to it.
Coach Oscar Tabarez’s team have punched far above their weight and Diego Forlan has been a man possessed.
At 31, he’s run harder, stronger and faster than men with younger legs, even the most ardent Ghana and South Africa fans had nothing but praise for Forlan.
“It was a match worthy of a World Cup semifinal. I’m proud of my players. We’re disappointed, but we’ve shown everyone who wrote us off beforehand that we’re not very far off the top,” said coach Tabarez.
“We gave it our best shot, but it wasn’t quite enough. I’m still completely satisfied with my team,” he said.