Ghana Claims First World Cup Win for Africa
June 17, 2006
Better finishing skills would have made the result even clearer for the African team that missed numerous chances on goal, especially in the second half.
Asamoah Gyan hit the post on a penalty kick in the 66th minute and nearly every one of Ghana's strikers and midfields shot directly into Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech in the second 45 minutes.
Ghana scored their first ever World Cup goal just over one minute into the game when Gyan hammered a low shot home after Tomas Ujfalusi, who would later receive a red card for the foul leading the penalty kick, was unable to head away a looping cross.
The Czechs were lucky not to go two down in the 32nd minute when Gyan again broke through only to be denied by Cech, and again while captain Stephen Appiah shot narrowly wide a few minutes later with the Czech goalie stranded.
The injury-hit Czechs suffered from having only one striker and lacked an edge to stretch the sometimes shaky Ghanaian defense to breaking point without injured strikers Jan Koller and Milan Baros.
By the end of the first half Ghana had a solid grip on the game, keeping the Czechs out of their penalty area and peppering Cech with shots.
The Ghana defense stood solid when the Czechs look like they would equalize coming out of the break and fended off runs from Tomas Rosicky and Czech soccer legend Pavel Nedved, who was ruled offsides after putting the ball past keeper Richard Kingson in the 46th minute.
With just eight minutes left in the match, Sulley Muntari took a square pass from Gyan and ripped a short-range shot high past Cech into the top of the net to close the day's scoring.
The Ghanaians continued their attack on Cech, who needed all his goalkeeping skills to fend off ensuing attacks from Michael Essien and Gyan.
The win kept Ghana's chances at advancing to the next round alive after a 2-0 loss to Italy in their opener. They play the United States in their final match in a wide-open group.
The Czech Republic, who drubbed the USA 3-0 last week, will have to play Italy for the points they need to advance to the round of 16.