10-Man Ghana Take Out Brazil on Penalties in the U-20 Final

October 17th, 2009 | by: Laurie |

Yesterday’s U20 final, Brazil vs. Ghana. So much potential for excitement. Ghana’s Black Satellites (the baby version of the Black Stars) came into the final having scored 16 goals in the tournament. Brazil stood at 14. Surely a goal-fest was in order.

But no.

The game-changing moment happens at about the 1:10 mark in the video, when Ghana’s Daniel Addo is sent off in the 37th. What do you think? Red, ref? Seriously? Dumb tackle, yes, but Addo’s not even the last defender. And it seems especially harsh in a U20 tournament, and even moreso in a final.

Ghana held on and managed to keep Brazil scoreless while creating the occasional opportunity themselves. No goals through both halves, then through both periods of extra time. So then we have this:

Penalties

Shock. Ten-man Ghana beats Brazil.

As expected, the folks from Ghana are ecstatic, the Brazilians less so. Sniffs coach Rogerio Lourenco:

“Of course, if you have 11 players creating chances they get more tired than a team with nine men at the back,” he said.

“I told the players to create chances and they did – we were not able to score today but they’ve done a great job throughout the tournament. When it gets to penalties, there’s nothing you can blame or regret.”

As a neutral I don’t think that gives Ghana nearly enough credit. But he didn’t ask me.

Must say, though, that — no offense to either team — the most interesting description of the game comes from LA Times’ acerbic soccer guy Grahame Jones:

Having just spent — wasted? — more than three hours watching Ghana and Brazil go through the motions in the final of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, I can draw only one conclusion:

If club teams around the world refuse to release their best young players to take part in such tournaments and if toothless FIFA is incapable or unwilling to do anything about it, then why bother?

(Daryl has expressed similar sentiments.)

I think Grahame Jones is a little harsh. (Then again, I “watched” the three-hour game in less than an hour, skipping over the boring parts.) But it does seem that if FIFA has plans to make this a serious tournament, perhaps they should be considering creating rules with teeth?

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Gary

Story already accounted for, Laurie.

http://ghana.worldcupblog.org/other/ghana-are-world-beaters-in-the-under-20s.html

Anyhow, I think the tournament is necessary especially for Africans because most of the national teams field the strongest players available in their nations. That’s as a result of the fact that the players here dont play in such high profile teams, see? But in the case of Europe players like Danny Welbeck etc are already in the top teams so why bother?
Daniel P

After looking forward to the game so much I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with the first half. Brazil realized that it was their game to loose and started attacking, but Ghana stood strong, took possession of the ball and defended their goal (with 10 men, you couldn’t have asked for more). Ghana worked hard and I think it was unfair for the Brazil coach to discredit them so much. By the extra time I thought both teams were playing well. Ghana came into the game as the underdog, simply because any game against a Brazilian side is the underdog, and then came out victorious. Congrats Ghana!
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

I agree, Daniel. The Brazil coach was perfectly fine with the harsh red despite the fact that things like that generally put teams in a defensive shell. It’s almost as if he’s saying that 11 on 11 Brazil could have won? But that’s not how things worked out.

And yes, congratulations to Ghana! It’s always great to see African teams do well in international competitions.
http://www.coponne.nl okwy

Brazil should realize that world cup is not their birth right.The belgium refree real mess up the game but courageously Ghana team came all out defensive, what a job well done “Bravo my african brothers” the jinx has been broken looking forward for the big one in south african……Africa you can make it always believe…..Ghana stars are my heros…..
Native Son

Congratulations to my brothers, the Ghanaians. Beating Brazil, while not an easy thing is always refreshing to me.
Numero

If the so called European countries who think their game has already developed and therefore will choose to field their 13th best string side and looses 4-0 to an african team, feel bitter after an african team has won the cup, I am surprised they are making such comments. They either be serious, come partake with the best they have or shouldn’t waste their time at all. If they do so with what they term second string side and lose, that be it. Tired of this. They would have lost anyway if they had even presented their senior teams.
sandrahn

Well I’m Brazilian and was delighted to see Ghana win. Certainly I don’t like seeing Brazil lose but it’s great to see African teams win a trophy (good luck next summer!) and over the course of the tournament, Ghana were terrific to watch. While Brazil were often quite boring. Congratulations to Ghana! Churlish and unnecessary comment from Rogerio.