It was put to Luis Suarez that he is seen as “the devil himself” in Ghana, his role in Uruguay’s infamous quarter-final win over them 12 years ago still as searingly controversial now as it was back then. A country back home, he was told, was desperate to retire him here in Qatar, to bring, at last, a measure of retribution and revenge against him for his crime against them.
Fast forward 24 hours and Suarez is indeed going home as they so wanted, his career at this very top level almost certainly over for good. They, though, are joining him, South Korea’s last-gasp win over Portugal, sending both of these teams crashing out, the result here at Al Janoub Stadium one of mutually assured destruction.
Two goals from Giorgian de Arrascaeta secured the victory Uruguay needed to have any chance of qualifying. That they would need a third wasn’t apparent until the last, Hwang Hee-chan’s stoppage time strike less than 30km away proving more crucial than any scored here.
This World Cup journey is at an end for both of these teams, the 2-0 victory for La Celeste not enough as Korea instead advance by the barest of margins behind Portugal.
For a tearful Suarez, heartbroken and helpless on the bench, it was far from the final act he had hoped for, or the one for so long here he had promised to deliver.
It is the image of the then Ajax striker, watching on from the tunnel after his blatant and brazen handball, wheeling away in celebration as Asamoah Gyan’s penalty kick subsequently cannoned off the crossbar that has been so etched in Ghanaian hearts and minds since.
Now, for another generation, that will be Andre Ayew, his weak and woeful penalty the most telling kick of all from a tournament now over for the Black Stars. Part of the squad in 2010, he had as close a view as any as Gyan fired the hopes of a country and a continent against the woodwork. Here it was he, with all that weight of history and expectation on his shoulders now, who would err once more, tamely rolling towards Sergio Rochet to save, with a nation back home surely willing him to do anything but.
Such was the emotion of it, so much feeling behind now another missed spot kick, De Arrascaeta’s brace in response, both assisted in part by a Suarez back to haunt Ghana again one final time, that sealed a victory – and for so long progress too – felt almost inevitable.
They came almost immediately and in just six first-half minutes, a ruthless and almost cruel lesson in what to actually do when presented with chances at this level. The first, after a sharp Suarez shot was stopped but not truly saved, saw De Arrascaeta swiftly seizing his chance to follow in and head home. The second, this time via a Suarez flick, De Arrascaeta sweetly and powerfully volleying in past Lawrence Ati-Zigi.
All eyes had been on Suarez even before a ball had been kicked and just as they were for that pre-match press conference. The antagonistic protagonist of this piece was handed a return by Diego Alonso and made captain with Diego Godin dropped, another subtle act of aggression after his media duties to further fuel a game that scarcely needed it.
Ghana, knowing a win would see them through regardless of the result in the other game, started the stronger. And they were gifted the most gilt-edged of opportunities to make it count when Mohammed Kudus was felled by Rochet after a Jordan Ayew shot was saved. Referee Daniel Siebert went to the screen, adjudged Andre Ayew to be onside from the initial strike, and pointed to the spot, the noise from the Ghana end for the award only beaten by that which greeted Ayew’s rancid miss from the mass of sky blue. The captain hung his head. He knew. We all knew.
Uruguay knew too and, sensing blood in the ranks of the shellshocked and stunned group in front of them, went for the kill. Suarez, whose legs don’t have the fire to match the temperament that still burns as white hot as ever, was central to it, first shooting and then assisting as De Arrascaeta emphatically fired his team into a lead they would never relinquish.
A third they would go on to so need would never come. Had Darwin Nunez been given a second-half penalty after a clumsy Daniel Amartey challenge or Facundo Pellistri had hit the target instead of flashing wide it may well have. Fede Valverde, the new star this next breed will be built around, threatened too, his pot shot from distance almost creeping in.
The excellent Kudus, one of the breakout talents of these finals, tried his best to change the course for his own side, stretching and straining until the last. At 22 he will come again, there will be other days, maybe even brighter ones, at World Cups to come. But not at this one, he, as his teammates, doomed to another dark moment on this stage in the spotlight.
Suarez was booed when yellow carded and even more lustily so as he left proceedings to be replaced by Edinson Cavani, his efforts that had seemingly done everything for his side only, at the very end, to amount to nothing at all.
