Ghana defeats Serbia by 1-0 in Pretoria

After a stupid penalty from Zdravko Kuzmanović – that Asamoah Gyan successfully shot in the 84th minute of the game, Ghana defeated Serbia by 1-0 for the first match of Group D in the World Cup 2010. The game took place at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, and Serbia was playing with ten men for the last 15 minutes of the game after Aleksandar Luković was sent out.

In an overall disappointing World Cup in terms of football quality so far, the first half of the game between Serbia and Ghana was definitely the worst played in South Africa. Both teams had no creativity whatsoever on the field, and the coaches had spent all their time preparing the defensive game of their players, and how to successfully shut down their opponents. The game took a turn during the second half, but only on one side and Ghana was the only team creating chances and running the match.

In the 63rd minute Prince Tagoe threw and excellent long ball to Asamoah Gyan, that slightly missed the header and the opportunity to open the score. Seven minutes later again Gyan hit the post with another strong header, and Serbia looked unable to bounce back. Coach Radomir Antić had to do something from the bench, so he took out Nikola Žigić and replaced the player with Danko Lazović. But before he got a chance to see if the substitution could turn the game for Serbia, Luković was sent off with a second yellow card.

If that wasn’t enough, ten minutes later Zdravko Kuzmanović stopped the ball using his hands in a non existent play, basically giving the game away to Ghana. The MVP of the match Asamoah Gyan had no problem nailing the penalty shot, and becoming the only player in history for Ghana to score a goal in two different World Cup competitions.