| EFE |
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| Ghana beat the Czech Republic. |
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Ghana pulled off the biggest upset of this World Cup and might have helped the United States along the way.
The first win for Africa in this tournament was a stunner, 2-0 over the same Czech Republic team that routed the Americans in their opener. Asamoah Gyan scored in the second minute Saturday and the Ghanians peppered star goalkeeper Petr Cech before getting the clincher in the 82nd.
With the victory, Ghana assured that the United States would not be eliminated from contention even with a loss later Saturday against Italy. A U.S. win would put all four teams even at three points in Group E.
Sulley Muntari added the second goal after Cech made save after save. He seemed to have intimidated the shooters until Muntari sent a rocket of a shot into the upper right corner of the net with the Czechs down to 10 men.
Gyan picked up a pass from captain Stephen Appiah and easily beat Cech from just inside the area only 68 seconds into the match. Heavily outnumbered by Czech fans in the crowd, Ghana's supporters roared with delight and danced in their seats in the 45,000-seat Cologne Stadium.
Gyan missed a penalty kick in the 67th after Czech defender Tomas Ujfalusi was sent off. He hit the right goalpost moments after putting a shot into the net, but before the referee blew his whistle to restart play.
Starting Lineups:
Czech Republic: Petr Cech; Zdenek Grygera, Tomas Ujfalusi, David Rozehnal, Marek Jankulovski; Tomas Galasek (Jan Polak, m.46), Pavel Nedved, Jaroslav Plasil (Libor Sionko, m.68), Karel Poborsky (Jiri Stajner, m.55); Tomas Rosicky, Vratislav Lokvenc.
Ghana: Richard Kingston; John Mensah, Habib Mohamed, John Pantsil, Illiasu Shilla; Otto Addo (Derek Boateng, m.46), Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari; Asamoah Gyan (Razak Pinpong, m.84), Matthew Amoah (Eric Addo, m.80).
Goals: 0-1: m.2. Asamoah Gyan, 0-2: m.82: Muntari
Referee: Horacio Elizondo (Argentina).
Bookings: Ujfalusi (m.65, Red Card), and Lokvenc (m.49) for the Czech Republic, and Addo (m.19), Essien (m.40), Gyan (m.65), Boateng (m.75), Muntari (m.87), and Habib Mohamed (m.93) for Ghana.
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