Exactly years 14 years today, 16th October, 2009, Ten-man Ghana triumphed at the Under-20 World Cup with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Brazil.
Ghana, who had Daniel Addo sent off, produced a fabulous defensive display to deny the South Americans.
The final finished 0-0 after extra-time and Brazil were made to pay when Alex Teixeira’s weak effort was saved in sudden death.
Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu scored the winner as Ghana became the first African team to win the tournament.
Agyemang-Badu’s winning penalty sparked jubiliant scenes
Both sides had missed two penalties out of the first five to add to the tension in the stadium by sending the game to sudden death.
Ghana were fired up after suffering a huge setback eight minutes before half-time.
Caught up the field as Brazil sprinted clear, Addo made a desperate tackle on the halfway line.
It was clearly a foul, but Addo was not the last defender and the challenge did not deserve a straight red card.
But he was sent-off and Agyemang-Badu dropped back into defence to replace him, depriving Ghana of a vital source of attacking possession.
Nevertheless, the Black Satellites went on to have their best and most incisive period of possession, but were unable to break the deadlock by half-time.
The game opened up in the second half, with Brazil taking advantage of their numerical superiority to create a series of chances for Teixeira and Alan Kardec, who was especially wasteful.
Brazil became more frustrated by their failure to score and started raining shots in from distance with no effect.
And although Ghana also fashioned opportunities, especially through Dominic Adiyiah and Dede Ayew, the 90 minutes finished goalless.
Ghana pressed early in extra-time but Brazil were denied a fabulous opportunity to take the lead by a point-blank save by Daniel Agyei.
Teixeira’s break down the left should have resulted in a goal but Kardec fluffed again and the follow up shot was well blocked by Agyei.
Ghana had a succession of corners at the end of the first extra period with Brazil’s defence looking shaky, but they could not secure the breakthrough and the game remained goalless and very tense.
Both sets of players were now very tired and more balls were going astray than were finding the right man.
Ghana had certainly not settled on penalties, with Agyemang-Badu creating one good chance right at the end.
But after 120 minutes the two most prolific goalscoring sides in this tournament could not be separated and spot-kicks decided the outcome.
A magnificent competition for the Black Satellites was capped by a deserving victory.
Source: BBC Sport
