Friday 2 July 2010

The football gods are truly evil...

Bloody hell. I thought we'd gone out in agonising circumstances in World Cups, but the Ghana lads have just set the bar at an all time high. As the bloke was coming up to spot the ball for the pen, I said to my g/f, "Bloody hell, how much pressure on this?" The vicarious dreams of an entire continent on his shoulders, poor sod. The weight of African football history weighing down on him, knowing he could have put an African nation in a World Cup semi for the first time. Is it any wonder he missed it? It was Langer over that putt on the 18th at Kiawah Island in 1991 for the Ryder Cup - that's the only other time I can think of in sport where the weight of expectation of an entire continent rest on a single fleeting moment like that. Langer missed too. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel stepping up to that - it makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Ghana were never going to win the shoot-out in a million years after that. Fair play to the lad for stepping up again and putting it in, balls of steel and no messing, but it was all over as soon as he missed in extra time. Suarez, in bizarre circumstances, may well now be viewed as something of a hero in Uruguay for preventing the goal that would have put them out. Amazing, frustrating, agonising, shocking, unjust and unpredictable sport, football. I bloody love it.

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