Uruguay make Gyan and Ghana pay the penalty

| Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

 

The South Americans will now play Holland for the chance to reach the final in this stadium, leaving Ghana to go home with Brazil. They can say they have gone further than any other African team in this competition, previous quarter-finalists Cameroon and Senegal having not made it to penalties, but that will be scant consolation for Ghana with the entire continent rooting for them. Especially as Kevin-Prince Boateng missed a close-range header right at the end of the game, before in an unbelievably frantic finale Luis Surez was dismissed for handling Dominic Adiyiah's header on the line and Asamoah Gyan struck the bar with the penalty with the last kick of the match.

Uruguay said they were expecting a physical challenge from Ghana, not something they would normally shrink from, and lost no time in showing they could handle themselves. In the 10th minute it was Egidio Arvalo who used his strength to hustle Anthony Annan off the ball, setting up the first chance of the game for Surez, who shot straight at Richard Kingson. Jorge Fucile overstepped the mark with a foul on Kwadwo Asamoah 10 minutes later, picking up a second tournament booking. Kingson made a sharp reaction save when the ball was deflected off John Mensah following a Forln corner, though looked less convincing when coming out to punch away a free-kick and only succeeding in sending the ball straight up in the air. That, coupled with Ghana's habit of giving the ball away cheaply in dangerous areas of their own half, gave Uruguay plenty of encouragement and it took a stretching block by Mensah to knock a Surez effort off target and after Isaac Vorsah had missed his clearing kick.

Ghana are nothing if not masters of the sudden, unexpected threat, however, and from their first corner after half an hour (Uruguay had six by that stage) Vorsah planted a firm header inches wide from Muntari's cross. Asamoah Gyan went just as close seconds later on what amounted to Ghana's second attack of the game, and after applying most of the first-half pressure Uruguay could have found themselves two goals down by the interval.

Muntari was wide with a header from another deep cross as the Ghanaians began to work out that aerial bombardment could be the way to break through. Shortly before the interval, Fucile completed an unhappy first half by jumping straight over the diminutive Samuel Inkoom and almost knocking himself out when he landed on his neck.

-Eye-catching as ever, Inkoom supplied the cross from which Kevin-Prince Boateng attempted the tournament's most spectacular goal as the first half entered stoppage time, only to see his acrobatic overhead kick fly wide. Uruguay possibly made the fatal mistake of thinking they could make it to the dressing room without damage just then, unless they imagined Muntari would not be able to hurt them from 30 yards out as the clock ticked down. In both cases they were wrong.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one bothered to close him down from a position only a few yards beyond the centre circle, Muntari shot straight and true, the ball curling away from the surprised Fernando Muslera at the last moment and finding its way into his bottom corner. Truly Ghana can score from anywhere.

What the Africans have difficulty with is scoring from conventional situations of superiority. They wasted a double overlap just before Uruguay's equaliser, giving themselves assorted options on a swift counter but not being able to find the pass that released any of them. A goal then could have made the game safe but Ghana were pegged back by Forln's fourth goal of the tournament, direct from a free-kick after John Paintsil had gone into the book for a foul on Fucile. Kingson might have done better with a shot that dipped over his head even though he was standing on his line, though Forln struck the ball beautifully. (Guardian.co.uk)