Quarterfinal recap

Uruguay 1-1 Ghana (Uruguay 4-2 pens)

Oh, the controversy in the wake of this one. Ghana took a 1-0 lead just before halftime via a Sulley Muntari blast from distance that caught Fernando Muslera napping in the Uruguay goal; Diego Forlan tied things up in the 55th with a perfect free kick. And then the game went on... and on... and on... and finally, things seemed to be going Ghana's way late. They were chasing a goal, and they were pushing into the Uruguayan box, and the ball was headed over the line... and Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, who amazingly was back defending the goal line, reached up and swatted the ball away with his hands. It was, of course, a red card and a penalty kick... but Asamoah Gyan, the hero of the US game and a man who had already scored twice from the penalty spot during the World Cup with the winning goal against Serbia and the tying goal against Australia - both penalties the result of handballs in the box as well, and one on the line though not as definitely deliberate as Suarez's, missed the kick. Gyan stepped up and had Muslera, diving to his left, fooled; at least two-thirds of the goal gaped for Gyan to virtually tap home. And instead, he blasted it off the crossbar. We were headed for a shootout.

There is, of course, nothing quite as poetically unfair as the penalty shootout in soccer. You don't need to be the best team on the day - if you can manage to get it to a shootout, you basically have as good a chance to win as the other team does. In 2005, Man City lost in a shootout to Doncaster Rovers, then in League One (the third division of English football), when Doncaster's backup goalie got insanely hot out of nowhere and stopped every penalty City took, even though they had by no means been the better team on the day. Whether Uruguay had played better than Ghana is arguable; the Ghanaians certainly had more shots, although Uruguay had more corner kicks (suggesting better shot quality and/or more attacking pressure), and the possession was fairly even. And to say that the team that is better at shooting penalties deserves to win isn't really the way to go, in my opinion. But with that said, Uruguay were unquestionably better at shooting penalties. Gyan stepped up for Ghan and slotted home, placing the ball in an unsaveable location in the top right corner, presumably what he had been hoping to do in the first place. Steven Appiah, second up for Ghana, also converted. But John Mensah went third and took one of the worst penalty attempts you will ever see. Muslera saved it; I suspect I could have saved it. It was awful. Uruguay missed their fourth kick, Maxi Pereira hitting the ball into about the 20th row, but Dominic Adiyiah - who had been denied the winning goal by Suarez's handball - hit a shot that was little better than Mensah's, and Muslera saved that too. Uruguay made their next kick (a vicious little chip from Sebastian Abreu) and that was that.

The topic of debate then centered on Suarez's handball. He was decried as a cheat; people screamed about how Ghana were robbed of a rightful win by his actions. This was, of course, true in some ways. But it's been my position that to call Suarez a cheat completely overlooks the fact that everything that happened was in complete accordance with the rules of the game. According to the rules of the game, an intentional handball in the box means a red card for the offender and a penalty kick to the aggrieved team. If you assume that Suarez was thinking at all - personally, I think it was simply an instinctive reaction that probably didn't spend much time in his brain at all - presumably he was thinking that by stopping the ball, he was momentarily preserving his team's chances. By forcing Ghana to make a penalty kick instead, he was at least leaving the door open; by simply stepping aside because he could not reach the ball with a legal part of his body, he was dooming his team to defeat.

This, it is claimed, is cheating. But I don't really agree. It is, it seems to me, gamesmanship. What Suarez did was completely within the rules - in the sense that, yes, he made an illegal play, but he was also thoroughly punished for it in the way the rules of the game prescribe. He was ejected; Ghana were given a free shot at the goal. As it happens, Asamoah Gyan completely blew the kick. If Gyan makes it, are we talking about Suarez? Doubtful. Would we be talking about this if Suarez had brought Adiyiah down from behind on a breakaway? No; he'd probably be praised for denying the sure goal and forcing Ghana to make the spot kick. The only real difference here is that we can all say with certainty that if Suarez isn't standing there, the ball goes in. But, again, what happened fell within the rules, and Ghana blew it. Should the rules be changed? Maybe, although I think that that's an overreaction to a single episode in the first place and gives the referee a dangerous amount of subjective power to award "clear goals" in the second. Ultimately, Ghana really have no one to blame for their exit but themselves; while penalty kicks are by no means gimmes, they had two-thirds of a gaping net from twelve yards to win the game and couldn't hit it.

Netherlands 2-1 Brazil

A pretty shocking result, all told. I only saw part of this game, and it was in the first half with Brazil up 1-0 and looking more or less in control. Things unraveled in the second, with severe miscommunication between defender Felipe Melo and keeper Julio Cesar leading to a rather hopeful Wesley Sneijder ball finding its way into the back of the net to equalize, and Sneijder knocking in a header on which the Brazilian defenders seemed completely unprepared and Cesar barely moved. Melo compounded his woes by getting sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben, and the Brazilians completely fell apart. Suddenly the Dutch must be favorites to get to the finals... where a 1974 revenge match could await them.

Germany 4-0 Argentina

I'm honestly not sure whether this result is more or less shocking than the Netherlands winning, though ultimately I would say less because Germany so dominated the entire game that it would have been incredible if they hadn't won. Argentina's defense finally showed its true colors; facing a quick offense packed with clinical finishers, the back line had no chance. Germany's own defense, which some had questioned, certainly showed up; while Argentina had more shots on goal than the Germans, not one of the seven gave Manuel Neuer any real trouble - the Argentinians didn't have a single shot from inside the German six-yard box, while three of the four German goals were inside the six-yard box and the fourth only about two yards beyond. Messi and Tevez, whose pace had so devastated the other teams they'd faced, were largely non-factors in this game. After seeing this result, one begins to wonder how the Germans can be stopped.

Spain 1-0 Paraguay

As weird a game as you're going to see. Spain, typically, dominated possession but had a hard time cracking Paraguay's defense. Paraguay, less typically, had some good chances to score and perhaps should have in the first half, an effort called back for what seemed to be a fairly dodgy offsides. In the second half, Paraguay earned a penalty, which Iker Casillas saved; almost immediately, Spain earned a penalty at the other end. Xabi Alonso scored, but it was called back for encroachment (which probably should have happened on the Paraguayan PK, necessitating a retake as well); on the second attempt, Alonso's kick - a much poorer attempt than his first - was saved by Justo Villar (who then may have gotten away with a penalty-worthy takedown of Cesc Fabregas as the two went for the rebound). And then when Spain finally scored, in the 83rd minute, it was only after Pedro hit the post; David Villa's rebound bounced off both posts before finally deciding to settle into the net. Ultimately you have to say the better team won, but Paraguay were certainly game. Perhaps they all had Larissa Riquelme in mind.