2010 World Cup: Ghanaians still sad, angry a decade on

Gently, he walked, picked up the ball, and then fiercely drilled it into the left top corner. The cool and collected figure he cut was a sharp contrast to his posture barely five minutes ago.

Earlier, he had rattled the top bar with a shot from the penalty spot, and his nation’s dream of being the first African nation to make the last four of the World Cup was hanging by a thread due to his inability to connect a Suarez foul.

A teeming group of supporters who were screaming and singing after the penalty was awarded had now crawled back into their shells with a plethora of questions on their minds.

Why didn’t he score the first time? What if Suarez hadn’t palmed the ball like a goalkeeper? What if the referee awarded a goal instead of a penalty?

But as they say ‘it was not meant to be”. Ghana was not meant to be at the semi-final of that tournament and from all indications, their quarter-final finish isn’t going to be bettered anytime soon.

But only one person carried the blame. The man whose extra-time goal sent the nation to the quarters is the same man whose miss ensured that Africa got so close yet so far from a World Cup semi-final.

A decade on from that painful night and the pain is still fresh. Gyan is still bearing the brunt and Suarez remains a hated figure in the country.

A visit by GhanaWeb to streets of Accra to get people’s opinions on that night reveals that not a lot has changed in terms of how people feel about that game.