Ghana in narrow loss to Brazil

The Blacks Stars of Ghana went down 1-0 to Brazil in a friendly match played at English premier leagues side, Fulham’s home ground, Craven Cottage.

Ghana succumbed to a Leandro Damiao goal scored from a tight angle against the runoff play. The Black Stars had a good start forcing two corners in the early period but did not really test Brazilian goal minder Julio Cesar during the match.

Ghana could have opened the scoring in the 12th minute but midfielder Samuel Inkoom wasted a great chance when Drek Boateng’s delightful ball put him through. Inkoom ‘s poor touch enabled Lucio to catch up and avert the danger.

The game was a balanced affair until Ghana was reduced to ten men after Daniel Opare was sent off in the 32nd minute. Opare had been yellow carded before and when he left a foot in on Lucio after he overran the ball, English referee Mike Dean produced a second yellow and Opare was on his way out. Dean handed out eight cards in total on that night.

With the expulsion the onus was with Brazil and they were soon dominating the game with Ghana on a damage limitation exercise.

The crowd was treated to the return of Ronaldinho who was appearing for his Brazil for the first time in nearly a year. The 31-year-old showed glimpses of brilliance and almost scored with an outstanding free-kick just before the end of the match which Adam Kwarasey in Ghana goal did well to push for a corner.

The Black Stars were missing key players Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew who were both injured. Ghana were thus unable to conjure up any convincing attacking play and had goalkeeper Kwarasey to thank for keeping the score line low.

Kwarasey produced a series of saves and played well with calm composure for a player turning out for only his second time for the national team.


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