I wanted Ghana to win both because it would help me in my pool and I wanted to see an African team make it as far as possible on their home continent. Although I slept through most of the second half and most of overtime, I woke up for the most exciting–and controversial–part.

As the last seconds ticked off the clock, Ghana had a shot at an essentially open net which saw the ball flying toward goal until a Uruguayan player used both his hands to knock the ball out, preventing a goal but getting himself ejected from the game. Did he cheat?

Bill Easterly, who draws analogies between all current events and development, addressed the issue in a short post:

• On one hand: “Suarez realized his team would surely lose if he let the ball go past his hands and lawfully and rationally chose to take the penalty to give his team a chance”
• On the other: “intentionally breaking the rule to prevent a loss was unforgivably unsportsmanlike”

Easterly goes on to add that, “If it pays to break the rules, they must be bad rules.”

My opinion is a mixture of all these thoughts. I don’t think it was cheating because both teams have the same rules available to them. If breaking a rule is to your advantage, it’s not cheating to break it BUT the rule should be changed (i.e. an automatic goal). And lastly, even if I don’t think it was cheating, I do think it was hugely unsportsmanlike, though, in the heat of the game, I would probably do the same thing.