Ghana vs Uruguay

1) Oh Gyan. Why did you have to give our cretinous press a reason to get all high and mighty and use the word "cheat" repeatedly? The Suarez Incident obviously dominated the press after this exciting game, and rightly so, but had Gyan simply placed the ball to the keeper's right, it all could have been avoided. Gyan then showed an extraordinary amount of bottle to score his second kick, but it was too little too late.

2) Annan was fairly poor for once in this game, I think because Forlan was operating from a position fairly close to him, so he wasn't allowed to be an extra man quite so much. Still, he's been a revelation.

3) Kevin Prince Boateng has had a fantastic tournament as well; driving from midfield, doing his share in defence, getting into the box: I'd have thought he is capable of performing at the upper echelons of European football; a bit of a prick though.

4) Kingson should have saved Forlan's free-kick; only a muppet would describe it repeatedly as a fantastic strike. It was hit literally to where he was standing. Poor.

5) John Mensah hit the worst penalty I have ever seen. He took the old Beppe Signori three step run up. The difference was, of course, that dear old Beppe could take a three step run-up to the side of the ball and hit the ball into either top corner without letting on beforehand which way he was going to shoot. Mensah, on the other hand, might as well have told the keeper he was going to shoot to his left, and then proceeded strike the ball about a foot away from the keeper. An appalling display of penalty taking, and harsh on Mensah, who has had a good tournament.

6) I had some sympathy for Adiyah, given that it was his header that Suarez pushed off the line, but again, a poor penalty.

7) However, I greatly enjoyed the Uruguayan who thundered the penalty over the bar. Marvellous work. Not quite up to the standard of Jaap Stam's in the Euro 2000 semi of Dutch Penalty Misses, where Stam managed to smash the ball on to the first tier of the stand, but it was a solid effort.

8) I suppose the last word is with Suarez. The simple truth is this: had Suarez not handled the ball, and allowed his team to lose the match, he would have been at fault as a professional. Therefore, describing him as a cheat shows a simple failure to grasp the nature of professional sport, and the fact that the desire to win has to override every other feeling. Bryan Robson once said that if an opponent is through on goal, and you have the chance to foul him and deny him from scoring, you would be letting the team down if you didn't do it. Suarez is a cunt for bragging about what he did, but not for doing it.