Handball
For what it’s worth I fall on the side of Luis Suarez’s handball that thinks it’s one of the more brilliant plays I’ve ever seen in sports. In case you missed it, it came in the last minute of extra time between Uruguay and Ghana. After two rebounds Ghana had a clear shot at goal and Suarez stuck his hand up and pulled it down before it could cross the line. He was immediately given a red card, ejecting him from the game, and Ghana was given a penalty kick, which they went on to miss. Extra time ended a minute later and Uruguay won on penalty kicks 4-2. Here’s The Wall Street Journal on the play:
How likely was it to pay off? Two of Ghana’s five goals at the World Cup had come from the foot of Asamoah Gyan on penalty kicks, and he hadn’t missed yet. But two kicks hardly are a big sample size. Before he stepped into the box, players had made nine of 12 penalty kicks at this World Cup. (That’s not counting the penalty shootout between Paraguay and Japan, because teams can assign their best penalty taker to take penalties during games.) That’s still not much to go on. A study of 1,417 penalty kicks taken in top European leagues found that 80.1% were successful — though the rate went down to 73.3% in the final 10 minutes of games, perhaps because fatigue affects penalty takers more than goalkeepers. Another study of 459 penalty shots taken in European leagues found a success rate of 74.9%. (Thanks to Advanced NFL Stats for the links.)
Lots of folks are calling what he did cheating, but I’m not sure I see that. Yes, it is against the rules, but so is pulling a player down who is making a clear and open run at goal and that happens. To compare it a handball that goes uncalled and leads to a goal (as AP writer John Leicester did) just seems absurd. The only argument I’ll buy on this one is that FIFA needs to change the rule to make goals like this stand (making it a call like goaltending). Otherwise to me it seemed like a brilliant split second decision between going home and giving your team another, albeit incredibly slim, chance to win the game.
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It was painful and heartbreaking but I think he did the right thing (obvious in hindsight). The shot had a 100% chance of going in versus 80% with a PK. Did Suarez think about that at the time? No, it was gut reaction which usually makes for a better decision anyway.
I think if you look at fouls as currency that can be used strategically then what he did was brilliant. From watching basketball games, I see how fouls are used consciously as strategic tools. But from my experience of watching soccer (which is not long, only started watching soccer in 2002 and just the two world cups before that) the ethos is different. It is just not considered to be in good spirit. I am not saying coaches won’t expend cards if they have to but for the most part you don’t even see many yellow cards given out in games. That’s just how the game is (or how I like to believe it is).
@Wayne: I wonder if he did think about it, actually. I mean as a soccer player you must be taught your whole life not to hit the ball with your hand. You’ve got to assume it’s so ingrained that you’re actually working against your instincts to hit it that way.
@Sriram: Great point.
No way this is even to be considered in the realm of “cheating”. Not to get all “the definition of…” here, but cheating is fraud or deception and this (an intentional handball to stop an obvious goal) is neither of those things. The rules are clear, and he followed the rules, knowing the consequence. It’s a lot like the clear-path foul in the NBA. Player fouls another player on a break-away, and the fouled player gets free-throws and possession.
It may be a dick move, but it isn’t cheating. As someone who’s played soccer for 27 years, as soon as I saw that play live, I thought “I would have done the exact same thing, no hesitation”. Again, just like the NBA clear-path foul, you know that best-case, you get away with it and save the goal. Worst case, you get tossed, save the initial goal, and make the player hit that penalty shot.
To me, this was a totally reasonable and obvious thing for Suarez to do, and I think honestly he would have been questioned just as much if he did NOT do what he did, and let that ball go by.
Totally agree. I can’t figure out the pattern to the people who argue the cheating side. Is it a cultural thing? I really have trouble understanding it at all.
Well, let me take a stab at explaining why I think it’s cheating.
Yes, strategically it was the right move, and you could say that because the rules have a way to handle the foul, the foul is permissible.
But let’s make an analogy to parking tickets. Some people think that if they’re fine paying the parking tickets, there’s no problem parking on the crosswalk (and they might get away without a ticket!). But that’s not actually true, because you’re still breaking the law and inconveniencing other people.
There are rules to deal with fouls, because fouls happen. But that doesn’t mean fouls are okay. At the end of the day, the point is not to win at any cost – the point is to win fairly. That’s what sportsmanship is about, and that’s why Uruguay are cheaters.
-Nick
Bonus question: how do you change the rules to prevent this behavior? For parking tickets, you eventually get booted, but red cards don’t carry any weight beyond the tournament, as far as I know.
Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon (check that — I definitely am), but I think you give Suarez a bit too much credit by calling the play brilliant.
I remember a second-string defender on my unremarkable high school team doing the exact same thing. On the other hand, we lost that game.
Fascinating article, thanks. Would you expand on the first section in additional detail please?