The only African team remained in the competition needed 120 minutes to win over USA. The Americans knew from the start this is not going to be an easy game and this fact was proved by the early score opening. Ghana scored in the fifth minute of the game, after a mistake by USA’s defence. Kevin Prince Boateng sent a shot from the edge of the box, firing the ball past Tim Howard.
USA started a forcing, but didn’t managed to score until the half-time. Coach Bob Bradley sent Edu instead of Clark on the pitch, and USA’s performance became better. The first half ended 1-0 and let everybody ask themselves if the United States can come back again. Well, they did it for the third time at this tournament, following a penalty scored by Donovan, USA’s star.
Both teams continued to play a nice game, but none managed to score until the 90th minute. In the last 10 minutes of the game neither team wanted to take risks and they just passed the ball around. Bob Bradley sent Jozy Altidore on the pitch in the 90th minute, but he only managed to miss a big scoring opportunity. The last goal of the game was scored by Gyan three minutes into the extra time. The African player is the top scorer of the team, with three goals. He is actually the only player who scored for the African team, after the two penalties in the group stage against Australia and Serbia.
The end of the game was hot, with USA trying to score a late equaliser. There was even a nice duel between the goalkeepers, when Tim Howard advanced in the opposite box for a corner. Even if USA was very close to score their second goal, Dempsey twice, Demerit and Gomez missed big opportunities and sent the African team through to meet Uruguay in the quarter finals.
