Uruguay vs Ghana Feature Piece by Charlie Semple
There’s an old tale in Ghanaian mythology, about a vampire by the name of Adze. Adze would haunt the Ghanaian people, giving them illness and bringing misfortune wherever he goes. He last attacked the Ghanaian people in 2010 and has moved away, terrorising others while he was gone. A Dutchman, Serbian and an Italian have all fallen victim to this vampire as he sank his teeth into the three of them across these twelve years.
Now, coming to the end of his reign of terror, he returns to the place where he made his name for one last meeting with the people who despise him most. For a final time, he wants to strike fear into the hearts of the Ghanaians – or will it be the people of Ghana who drive a stake in the heart of the villain and get revenge for that time twelve years ago?
In Uruguay, he is known as ‘El Pistolero’, a legendary figure and the hero of millions. Tonight, he could lead his country into battle for the last time as he faces the people of which he broke their hearts, shattered their dreams and cemented his status as a villain in the eyes of Ghanaian people.
Luis Suarez: Prospect in Amsterdam, superstar in Liverpool and legend in Barcelona. So hungry for success, he has bitten PSV rival Bakkal, Chelsea rival Ivanovic, and Italian legend Chiellini. It was blood-curdling behaviour. Tonight, the gunman led Uruguay out to face Ghana in a match with high stakes as both teams needed to win alongside other results going their way to advance through the group phase of the 2022 World Cup.
We were quickly reminded of the history between these two sides as Ghana were awarded a penalty. This was a perfect moment to get revenge on Luis Suarez and Uruguay after the 2010 World Cup, in which Luis Suarez stopped a match-winning goal for Ghana using his hands in the 120th minute – keeping the score at 1-1 and awarding Ghana a penalty. This was missed, sending the game to a penalty shootout in which Uruguay would win and eliminating Ghana thanks to Suarez’s handball – which earned him his villainous status in the eyes of Ghanaian people.
History would repeat itself, as the penalty was missed by Jordan Ayew. Uruguay would then go on to score two goals in the first half with Suarez playing a key role in both the goals. The game would finish 2-0 to Uruguay, eliminating Ghana from the tournament but, due to other results, the South American team did not qualify for the knockout stages either, leaving the Uruguay captain in tears.
The old villain Adze returned to haunt Ghana for a final time and did so successfully, but the Ghanaians did enough to stop the vampire continuing his terror, therefore getting some sort of revenge after a dramatic and thrilling climax to their tale.
