Stephen Appiah’s 2010 World Cup memories

Stephen Appiah has denied he attempted taking the decisive penalty kick in Ghana’s painful defeat to Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup.

The ex-Black Stars captain was seen picking up the ball in anticipation to take the resultant penalty after Luis Suarez had scooped out a goal-bound header from Dominic Adiyiah in an emotional charged quarter final clash in South Africa.

Striker Asamoah Gyan was eventually the kicker with his penalty agonizingly coming off the cross bar and out to dash Ghana’s chances of making an historic semi-final berth as the Black Stars lost the ensuing penalty shootout.

Many who castigated Asamoah Gyan for his miss pointed to the observation that he should have left kick to Appiah who has had a great track record in taking such important kicks.

But the former Juventus star says he never attempted to take the kick but only went to pick up the ball as he thought it had been given as a goal.

“It wasn’t true that I took the ball and wanted to take it and Asamoah came to take it from me,” he revealed to the World Cup Commission.

“I saw the linesman running to the center as a goal so I took the ball to for us to go to the center.”

Appiah scored one of such high-tension penalty to give Ghana a 2-1 win over the USA in its debut campaign at the World Cup back in 2006 in Germany.