TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL MEMORY BY @chambas

Football is one of the most loved sport in the world, most popular in Europe and other parts of the world. It is usually played by an 11 man team(both male and female) with two sides playing against each other for 90 minutes, 45 minutes for each half, officiated by a referee on the pitch, and assisted by other referees who control proceedings outside pitch.

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Ghana vs Uruguay is the match that comes to mind as the match I can never forget, including many other Ghanaians that share my frustration and pain whenever this particular fixture is mentioned.

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Ghana vs Uruguay was a 2010 world cup quarter-final fixture played in South Africa. This particular world cup was special especially to Africa as a whole as it was the first World cup ever hosted by an African Nation. This fixture was particularly special for Ghana because a win would have propelled Ghana to the Semi-Final of the World cup, a feat only ever achieved by one other African country, Cameroon. This would have been history.

Uruguay vs Ghana was played on Friday 2nd July 2010 in Soccer City Stadium at 7:30 pm. It was highly anticipated by many Ghanaians that faithful evening, fans were in the stadium cheering, and those of us supporting from home (Ghana) were glued to our TV sets. The match finally commenced with our Favourite and popular players such as Asamoah Gyan, Richard Kingston, Sulley Muntari, Kevin Prince Boateng, John Mensah, etc were all in the starting lineup. Ghanaians were enthusiastic about the outcome of the match.

sourceGhana world squad, 2010

The match was tough as expected and the Uruguayans had more of the ball with some few chances created by both teams. The Deadline was broken by Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari at the first-half added time (45 +2 minutes), there was elation in the camp of Ghana with fans both in the stadium and outside the stadium jumping for joy, I was excited. It was soon half time and the referee blew his whistle for the break-in proceedings, it was a satisfying 15 minutes while preparation was made for the second half to begin.

sourceMuntari's goal strike

The players of both teams walked onto the field and the second half began, shortly afterward our joy was cut short in the 55th minute by Their talisman Diego Forlan. The match was at par 1: 1 until the final whistle was blown to end proceedings. In a match of this nature, there had to be a winner, so an Extra 30 minutes was added.

The game was played up to the 120th minute and that is where the whole Drama occurred which left an imprint in the hearts of Ghanaian football enthusiasts. There was pressure on Uruguay with most of the ball being played in their half, the ball was headed towards goal by a Ghanaian player, the keeper was beaten, while the ball was heading to the net, an Uruguayan player named Luis Suarez used his hand to prevent the ball from entering into the net.

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We all shouted for joy thinking the ball had scored but instead the referee whistled for a penalty kick to be taken in favor of Ghana. Maybe in this modern-day football, a system called VAR ( Video assistant referee) would have determined whether the ball crossed the line or not, something many Ghanaians still wonder happened or not.

The penalty kick was to be taken by the Ghanaian leading goalscorer in the competition, Asamoah Gyan, he was Ghana's best chance of getting the ball into the net. Asamoah Gyan took the penalty and missed, at that particular time every Ghanaian fan's heart was broken, a huge opportunity was missed at that particular time even though that match was still heading for penalty kicks.

It affected the players mentally and they eventually lost the penalty shootout to Uruguay further cementing our grief and bitterness towards Luis Suarez and our very Own Asamoah Gyan.

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This particular fixture remains something epic, a huge opportunity missed to make history on the world cup Stage especially one that was hosted by an African country. Nevertheless, our support is still available for the Black Stars of Ghana even though it is never the Same...

Thanks for your attention

CC: @njaywan

#footballcontest #worldoffootball #football #ghana #soccer