BRAVE GHANA BOWS OUT OF THE WORLD CUP

The African hearts got broken last night and when it happened the circumstances in which it ensued could easily be likened to a scene from a Hollywood movie. With all the African teams except Ghana making it past the first round the expectations on the black stars double when they became the third African team in history to make it to the quarterfinals of the world cup.

Ghana was so close to making to the semifinals

And with a tie against Uruguay in the horizon most people believed Ghana could do the unthinkable by making to the semi-final in their second world cup appearance. Its Friday 3rd of July, Venue is soccer city stadium in Johannesburg and the stage is set for an African renaissance and so it looked like when Solomon Muntari, a play who was rumoured to be out of favour with the coach fired a superb shot from 25 yards to put Ghana ahead with just a minute left to play in the first half. The whole continent of Africa erupted at the wonder goal that had set up Ghana for an unprecedented win. At the start of the second half, Uruguay switched up the gear and scored a wonder goal that bought the up to par with Ghana. After ninety minutes, the game went into extra time.

Ghana had the clearest opportunities in extra time. Gyan flashed an open header over the bar in the 110th minute, and five minutes later, defender Andres Scotti did just enough to rush the ball away when it looked like the Ghanaian would score. Boateng almost won it minutes from time, but his header screamed agonisingly wide. And then at the death, from a free-kick into the box, Suarez blocked Appiah’s shot on the line only to then stop Adiyiah’s headed follow-up with his hand. With Suarez red carded, it was left to Gyan to slot home the penalty that will have put an African team into the semifinals for the first time but somehow he missed and the game went into the penalties. It was evident that Ghana lost its confidence after Gyan failed to take advantage and ultimately they lost 5-3. It was sad night for Ghana and indeed the whole of Africa. But on this performance we are rest assured that one day, Africa’s day will come.