Uruguay vs. Ghana 2010: New Hand of God Belongs To Luis Suarez

This world cup tournament has been many things thus far.  Fraught with missed calls, more incidences of theatrics, drama, excitement and mixed with examples of good sportsmanship and excellent examples of team play, mainly by the young German team (among others).

I have to say,  I have seen quite a lot of unsportsmanlike behaviour from quite a few big name famous players, coaches and officials.  While they are not supposed to be role models, as a fan, I find it off-putting and  unnecessary.  If I did some of that stuff, I would have gotten a good yelling/spanking.

Among all of that, the one incident I am focusing on today is the now infamous "hand of god" play which occurred in the Ghana-Uruguay match.  To back track, the original "hand of god" occurred during the 1986 World Cup when Diego Maradona scored with his hand.  It seems that Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez refers to that term with regards to consciously using his hand to block the ball from entering the  net from his goal line.  He prevented a goal, but was given a red card a penalty kick awarded to Ghana (who failed to capitalized). 

There are two schools of thought on this play.  First being that he is a cheater and an embarrassment to the game deserving of a harsher penalty.  The second school of thought was he had to do whatever he had to.  Take a calculated risk to prevent a sure goal, and hope Ghana wouldn't score.  It turns out his risk worked out for his team.

Regardless, I feel his excessive celebration (a sigh of relief and a hug or two would have been sufficient), his extreme pride in that play, and being carried off like a hero was classless and disgusting.  Those of us who have played organized sports all know what it feels like to have benefitted of a cheap play, however, you shut up, be a bit greatful, put your head down and move on. Not rub it in to such an extent as Suarez. 

I am curious as to what side you viewers fall on.  Do you think what he did was part of the game?  Or, did he cross some unwritten code of soccer etiquette?