After the hand ball in the Ghana versus Uruguay match in this year’s World Cup I’ve developed strong feelings about how they are handled in certain situations… When Gyan was robbed of a goal by Uruguay’s player slapping the ball out of the air right on the line, they were given a penalty kick. Of course Gyan missed the kick and at the end of the game the situation was that Ghana went home after losing on Penalty Kicks to break the tie.

I think they should modify the rule to be similar to a foul committed inside the box – basically, if the foul is committed by a defender, but the player with the ball still has a scoring chance the ref lets play continue and if he scores the foul is disregarded. A penalty kick is not awarded as the player has scored.

I think in the case of a hand ball in the goal mouth in a flagrant attempt to block a certain goal – as in the case mentioned above – the player handling the ball should be red carded and the goal should be awarded because it was a certain goal had the defense not handled the ball. Disregard the penalty kick. Allow the goal.

By awarding only a penalty kick rather than the goal that would have been scored, the attacking team is also penalized in a way, and I don’t like it. I think the penalty for handling the ball in that type of situation should be swift and painful. Especially in cases where the player flagrantly handles the ball.

Damn! Those Ghanaians – Ghana-ites – Ghanareans…. Whatever…

Damn those dudes can run fast and score goals! We made two – count them – TWO – mistakes and they scored on both of them to win in the Round of 16. Good on them! They were faster to the ball, they played quicker and more precisely, and basically just beat us up. We lost to the better team on the day. I give the USA a lot of credit for making it TO the Round Of 16, but we weren’t ready for the fight.

I’m looking forward to the Brazilians and the Argentines to go into the latest rounds at this point.

We’ll see what happens though…