Sad memories: Suarez denies Ghana historic World Cup semis

On 2nd July, 2010, the Black Stars of Ghana blew up a perfect opportunity to advance to the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, in a rather dramatic fashion at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Stars lost on penalties, with the South Americans converting four out of the five penalty-shoot-outs, while Ghana managed scored from only two.

Backed by a voiceferous crowd with continuous sound of the vuvuzela, it was indeed a moment, the Stars had every opportunity to make a historic entry into the semi-finals, after taking a lead in the game, and were awarded a penalty in the 120th minute, but fate was just not on their side.

Though, they struggled at the initial stages, the Stars recovered by the 20th minute of the game and began to dominate proceedings, creating scoring chances which were however wasted.

The clearest of the chances came in the 30th minute when a swift move initiated by Kevin Prince Boateng, found Asamoah Gyan but Ghana's leading scorer had saw his kick missing the target narrowly.

As everything pointed to a goalless first half, Sulley Muntari had his curling 30-yard-shot hitting the back of the net, in the added time period of the half to put Ghana ahead.

On resumption, the Stars ensured they maintained the pressure on their opponents and were found in the defence of Uruguay on several occasions but Kevin Prince Boateng, Gyan were unable to convert the chances that came their way.

Uruguay, after surviving the attacks, managed to get a free kick few metres away from the vital area of Ghana and Diego Forlan was on hand to deliver a perfect free kick which keeper Richard Kingson had no answer to in the 55th minute.

The game developed into a ding-dong battle with both sides wastibng a number scoring chances that came. At point it became evident that the game was destined to go beyond 90 minutes.

The first half of the extra time saw both sides having fair exchanges in the game, but the South American took a slight dominance, creating a lot of scoring chances but keeper Kingson was up to his task.

Ghana, determined to carry the day took the game to their opponents in the second half of the extra time. During one of such forays Gyan's glancing header from Stephen Appiah's cross missed the target narrowly.

An attack initiated later by Ghana saw Appiah failing to control the ball in the vital area. Forlan also squandered a perfect opportunity to score in the 113th minute.

In the 114th minute Gyan watched his goal bound kick being cleared by Mauricio Victorino on the goal line.

The Stars of Ghana could have won the game in the dying minutes of the extra time, but chances that fell on the path of Kevin Prince Boateng were blown off.

But the clearest moment for victory came in the 120th minute, when Louis Suarez used his hand to scoop out a goal bound header from Dominic Adiyiah. The Referee sent off Suarez and awarded spot-kick to Ghana.

Gyan hit the cross bar in an uncharacteristic fashion, pushing the game into penalty-shoot-out.

Diego Forlan, Mauricemo Victorino, Adreas Scotti and Sebatien Abreu scored for Uruguay, whilst Asamoah Gyan and Stephen Appiah converted for Ghana with John Mensah and Dominc Adiyiah failing to score.

LINE UP:
GHANA: Richard Kingson, John Painstil, Hans Adu Sarpei, John Mensah, Isaac Vorsah, Anthony Annan, Kevin Prince Boateng, Sulley Muntari/Domin Adiyiah, Kwadwo Asamoah, Asamoah Gyan, Samuel Inkoom/Stephen Appiah

URUGUAY: Fernando Muslero, Diego Lugano, Jorge Fucile, Mauricio Victorino, Edinson Cavani/Sebastiene Abreu, Louis Suarez, Diego Forlan, Diego Perez, Maximilano Pereira,Egidio Arevalo, Alvaro Fernandez