Ghana, the pride of Africa in this world cup have qualified into the quarter finals after beating the swift and energetic USA team by two goals to one. This came after they emerged out of a tough group in which everybody had the chance of qualification to the next stage.
Ghana has therefore joined two other countries Cameroon and Senegal to become the only African teams to have reached this stage. But for Ghana they are doing it in style on an African soil.
The Ghana-USA game indeed was an interesting and keenly fought for one. Prior to the match, discussions on international media BBC included made Ghana the underdog with such statements as “the Ghanaian team can only play for eighty minutes”, “Ghana cannot score but for penalties”, “Ghana’s striker i.e. Asamoah Gyan is only good at scoring penalty kicks” among others.
Well it turned out that the Black stars proved their critics wrong when they beat the Yankees who were in for a revenge of the defeat they suffered at the hands of the Ghanaian team at Germany 2006.
Interestingly, none of the goals the Black stars scored were penalty kicks, the Black stars played for as long as a hundred and twenty minutes and the second goal of the Stars was by Asamoah Gyan. This goal was splendid and many strikers will like to have goals of a kind.
Not only patriotic citizens were present at the stadium to support both teams but the President of Ghana John E. Atta-Mills and ex-president of USA Bill Clinton were also at the stadium to motivate their players.
The Black stars are poised for their next match against Uruguay which will see them into the semi-final if they win though they will be missing such key players as Dede Ayew who is on suspension for taking two yellow cards and probably Kevin Prince Boateng who suffered an injury in their last match.
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