World Cup 2010 Comment: Don’t cry for Ghana

We saw tears and felt pain last night when the only surviving African team at the World Cup, Ghana, was eliminated by Uruguay at Soccer City Stadium.

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Many reasons to lament, many reasons to curse.

If Ghana had been defeated during the 90 minutes of play, or even during extra time we could easily call Uruguay the stronger side.

But as it happened, we can’t say that they out-played the Africans and so deserved the victory; or that Ghana played badly and deserved to be beaten.

No! The Black Stars shined, staging a worthwhile battle against the South Americans.

Uruguay got underway with a robust intensity hoping to intimidate the Blacks Stars early in order to cut into their throat and leave them gasping in despair – like Brazil did to Chile in their 3-0 win in the second round – but Ghana withstood, dragging along the Charruas until their superiority complex was gradually replaced by ambiguity.

When Inter’s Sulley Muntari fired home a shot, which left Nestor Muslera stretching to no avail, Uruguay knew they were in trouble.

Even when star striker Diego Forlan evened the score with a free-kick early in the second half, Ghana didn’t cower.

We were beginning to envisage a long night with fear and hope warring in our souls.

Forlan and Luis Suarez, whom many tipped could change the destiny of the evening, remained constantly dampened by Ghana’s tactics and cohesive production.

Goal scorer Muntari | There were no celebrations after the match

During extra-time, we saw a more combative Ghana, menacing Uruguay’s defence in search of a goal to seal victory, but at the height of their arduous effort, Suarez’s unprofessional hand ball robbed the Africans of a winning goal.

Don’t blame Asamoah Gyan for wasting a golden opportunity of breaking the jinx that has always limited African teams at the quarter-finals, but salute the effort of these youngsters who came from nowhere to reach this stage of the competition.

Everybody can miss a penalty, after all, hitting the crossbar showed how well he had aimed his shot.

Using hands to parry a goal-bound ball showed how reduced and feeble Uruguay had been during the dying minutes of the game.

Ghana had pushed and pressed them to an extent that they had to apply an unconventional means of defending and fending off danger.

And to demonstrate how badly they needed the save, Luis Suarez was lifted shoulder high by his mates as the hero of the evening during their bliss celebration after the game.

I am not here to blame Suarez, he and his team got their lot – a red card, a penalty and a possible two-game suspension – what I’m trying to point out is that Ghana deserve kudos for rocking the two-time world champions Uruguay down to their knees.

When a boxer reaches for a knife to fight instead of his fists, it’s a sign that he has been over-powered by his opponent. Ghana won somehow last night. The crying can stop.

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