Asamoah Gyan's Penalty Miss Cost Ghana A Place In The Semi Finals

Pin It Now! Asamoah Gyan stepped forward, highly excited and already relishing the thought of having to play in the semi finals of the 2010 world cup. The referee sounded his whistle and with the speed of lightening, he moved forward and took the kick. The goal keeper dived to the wrong direction; and I heard the shout of ‘ow!’ from my neighborhood. I held my hands over my head in utter disbelief: he has lost the penalty.

Asamoah Gyan had been outstanding in the 2010 world cup in South Africa, where he had helped his country Ghana to the quarter finals. He made the Black Stars get to that stage through his great goals in the group stage (2 penalty goals), and his terrific strike that sent USA home in the second round. He had scored three goals in four matches, making him one of the contenders for the Adidas Golden Boot.

So in their quarter final match against Uruguay, the Black Stars had played with enthusiasm, hoping to be in the last four. Full time scores had ended at 1-1, and the match went into extra time. The first 27 minutes of the extra time were without any goals, and everyone had concluded the match would end in penalty kicks. Then on the dot of 30 minutes (the very last minute), there was a goal mouth struggle on the side of Uruguay and eventually one of the players had handled the ball with his hands. The center referee wasted no time by issuing him a red card and awarded a penalty to Ghana.

Going by his performance in the tournament, he was favored as the best person to take the kick; and what happened? His shot hit the cross bar, after the goal keeper dived to the wrong direction. The Ghanaian team was devastated by this great miss; and when the game was finally decided on penalty kicks, the Uruguayans won by 4-2. Gyan wept bitterly as the Uruguayans celebrated their triumph over Ghana.

What do you do if you want to take a penalty kick?

1.Compose yourself: you should first compose yourself, and don’t be over excited. Over excitement would make you not able to aim your kick very well.

2. Dissipate fears: Remember the goal keeper is also afraid of the outcome of the kick. Don’t ever feel he is going to catch your ball: he is also afraid you are going to score. Remove fears and you would be able to act rationally.



3.Aim very well: Don’t aim too close to the upright or the cross bar; if there is any little mistake, you are likely to hit the upright or the cross bar.

4.Look the goal directly in the face: Look the goal keeper in the face while your mind should be where you want to direct your kick to. This leaves the goal keeper confused as he would not be able to predict your next move.

5.Move quietly toward the ball: Don’t rush the ball, otherwise you make a mistake.

6.Shoot hard: Kick hard at the ball, and if the goal keeper misses it, he would not have the chance to quickly turn back to remedy the situation.

Asamoah Gyan's Penalty Miss Cost Ghana A Place In The Semi Finals