Ghana's Dream Over

Brazil 3-0 Ghana

It was a really harsh result on Ghana as the game could have ended so differently providing they had taken their chances which sadly they didn’t despite creating many numerous opportunities just their efforts were either straight at the Brazilian goalkeeper Dida or well off the target.

It took just five minutes for Brazil to open the scoring as Ronaldo scored his fifteenth goal in the world cup finals to break Gerd Muller’s record. Ronaldo still at Real Madrid latched onto Kaka’s through ball and side stepped the descending Ghanaian keeper Richard Kingston and coolly tapped it home.

Seven minutes later Adriano was put through clear on goal by Jose Ze Roberto but the Inter Milan hit man failed to replicate Ronaldo’s sidestep on Kingston thus losing the ball and having dived over the keeper he got his just rewards and was booked however Ghana were being opened up time and again by the Brazilians due to their defensive line being quite high up.

It took until the twenty minute mark for Ghana to settle down and they started controlling the play, at times the so called Brazil of Africa were outplaying the real Brazil as they calved out numerous chances. Stephan Appiah was again a lynchpin in the heart of Ghana’s midfield along with Eric Addo coming in for the suspended Michael Essien of Chelsea.

Sulley Muntari and Matthew Amoah had efforts on goal moments later but were comfortably dealt with by Dida but Eric Addo created Ghana’s best chance of the game so far ten minutes before the interval as his cross found Asamoah Gyan who managed to shrug off two defenders but could only hook the ball over the crossbar. With half time looming, Brazil were on the back foot with the African side pushing hard and working extremely hard to find a way back into the match.

Their best moment came when centre back John Mensah latched onto a whizzing in swinging corner. His unwatched powerful downward header left Brazil’s goalkeeper needing a prayer to save it as he was totally caught out, luckily for him his stray foot managed to keep it away from the goal.

Then a sucker punch came for the Africans a minute before half time. Muntari almost broke through the Brazilian defence with a mazy run but was dispossessed at the last minute, Brazil who were playing most of the game on the counter broke away and Adriano who was rather suspiciously offside not one but twice in the move managed to tap home Cafu’s cross which eluded the Ghanaian defenders and goalkeeper.

It was hard on Ghana as they probably did just shade the first half when talking about performance however in the second half it was obvious that Ghana wouldn’t pull off a fantastic comeback. Despite playing well and still calving out chances they must have obviously left their shooting boots at home.

Five minutes into the second half Asamoah Gyan had a wild effort which disappointingly sailed well wide of the mark. A few minutes later Matthew Amoah laid the ball cutely to Haminu Draman after a brilliant move Draman blazed his effort over the bar.

With just over twenty to go it was going to be one of those days where the ball just wouldn’t go in for the African side. Appiah who was again in the thick of it put through Gyan who tested Dida with a shot low to his left, Dida couldn’t hold and Amoah couldn’t snatch the loose ball as the Brazilian keeper smothered at the last second.

The crowd, mostly Brazilians were booing their team’s lacklustre performance towards the end of the game but they responded by grabbing a third. Ghana were down to ten men as Asamoah Gyan was given his second yellow card of the game for diving in the penalty area and moments after that with 8 minutes to go Brazil got the killer third. Ricardinho played a simple ball over the Ghana’s very high back line and Jose Ze Roberto cut across and flicked it past the flapping Richard Kingston and tapped home to round the game off.

It was harsh on Ghana who certainly didn’t deserve to loose by three and it could have been six if it wasn’t for Kingston. He pulled off three really good saves late on including the save of the day, thwarting Ronaldo late on.

Ghana’s first world cup comes to an end and they are a side that has made many friends as the victors Brazil will go onto face either France or Spain in the quarter finals.

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