On this day 17 June 2006 (Exactly 14 years ago today) Ghana pulled off the biggest upset of the 2006 FIFA World Cup by recording their first victory over the second-ranked team on the FIFA/Coca -Cola World Ranking, Czech Republic 2-0 at the RheinEnergiestadion in Cologne, Germany.
Asamoah Gyan fired Ghana ahead after just 70 seconds, finishing superbly to punish Tomas Ujfalusi’s mistake.
Ujfalusi was later sent off for bringing down Matthew Amoah, but the Czechs had a reprieve as Gyan struck the resulting penalty against the post.
Petr Cech kept Ghana at bay with a string of great saves but the Black Stars sealed victory with a second when Sulley Muntari rounded off a fine move.
Ghana gave an instant demonstration of their determination to make amends for their error-strewn defeat to Italy by sweeping into the lead inside 70 seconds.
A Ghana corner was cleared only as far as Stephen Appiah whose cross was missed by Ujfalusi and fell for Gyan who finished superbly past Cech from the edge of the box.
The Czech Republic were having problems getting the influential Tomas Rosicky on the ball and when they did get crosses in they missed the giant figure of the injured Jan Koller and Ghana’s defence were able to cope relatively comfortably.
Ghana’s central midfielders Appiah and Michael Essien worked their socks off to negate the threat of Nedved and Rosicky.
The Czechs at last stitched a move together, with Jaroslav Plasil, Rosicky and Nedved combining to set up Poborsky for a cross which Rosicky fired wide.
Czech Republic’s hunger for an equaliser almost proved their undoing as Asamoah Gyan caught them short-handed at the back and it needed a great save Cech to prevent Ghana doubling their lead.
At the other end Richard Kingston arched up to tip over a powerful drive from Plasil as the contest took on the air of a game in the knockout stages.
Drama erupted on 65 minutes when Ujfalusi brought down Amoah. Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo pointed to the penalty spot, but took an age to show the last Czech defender a red card.
Gyan was shown a yellow card for taking the penalty without the referee’s permission, ruling him out of Ghana’s last group game against the USA, and struck the retake against the post.
Ghana shrugged off that disappoinment to surge forward and Cech kept the Czechs alive with great saves from Muntari and Amoah.
Cech almost single-handedly kept Ghana at bay, denying Amoah and Gyan in quick succession.
But his resistance ended when Muntari ended off a fine move by firing past Cech from 12 yards.
Czech Republic: Petr Cech, Zdanek Grygera, David Rozehnal, Tomas Ujfalusi, Marek Jankulovski, Karel Poborsky (Jiri Stajner 55), Tomas Galasek (C) (Jan Polak 45), Tomas Rosicky, Jaroslav Plasil (Libor Sionko 68), Pavel Nedved, Vratislav Lokvenc.
Subs Not Used: Pavel Mares, Radoslav Kovac, Martin Jiranek, David Jarolim, Jaromir Blazek, Marek Heinz, Antonin Kinsky, Jan Koller, Milan Baros.
Sent Off: Ujfalusi (66).
Booked: Lokvenc.
Manager: Karel Brückner (Czech Republic)
Ghana: Richard Kingston, John Pantsil, John Mensah, Habib Mohamed, Shilla Illiansu, Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah (C), Sule Muntari, Otto Addo (Derek Boateng 45), Asamoah Gyan (Razak Pimpong 85), Mathew Amoah (Eric Addo 80).
Subs Not Used: Sammy Adjei, Hans Sarpei, Samuel Kuffour, Addoquaye Pappoe, Tachie-Mensah, George Owu, Daniel Quaye, Issah Ahmed, Haminu Dramani.
Booked: Otto Addo, Essien, Gyan, Boateng, Muntari.
Goals: Gyan 2, Muntari 82.
Manager: Ratomir Dujković (Serbia)
Attendance: 45,000.
Referee: Horacio Marcelo Elizondo (Argentina).
Fifa man of the match: Michael Essien
TRIVIA
Asamoah Gyan’s opening goal after one minute and eight seconds was the fastest at the 2006 World Cup. The finals record is 11 seconds by Turkey’s Hakan Sukur against South Korea in 2002. Gyan’s missed penalty marked the first unconverted spot kick at this championship. The last player to miss a penalty at the World Cup was South Korea’s Jung-Hwan Ahn against Italy in 2002.
Ghana’s starting line-up was the youngest of all teams at the 2006 World Cup with an average age of 24 years and 203 days. They became the first of the six debutants in Germany to gain a maximum, the first African nation to win at this tournament and the eighth nation ever from the continent to complete a World Cup victory.
Ghana’s triumph ended Czech Republic’s unbeaten run of nine matches in all competitions.
Elsewhere;
On this day 17 June 2011(Exactly 9 years ago today) Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi was re-elected for a second term of office until 2015 by the GFA Congress in Prampram.
By being the only qualified candidate for the election of President and in accordance with Article 28.7 of the GFA Statutes, Congress duly returned unopposed, the incumbent president.
President Nyantakyi, then 43, thanked the delegates for placing their trust in him and appealed for unity.
“I am happy to be re-elected as President of our Association. With all humility, I extend my gratitude to all Members of the Congress for endorsing my re-election,” Nyantakyi told Congress.
The GFA President spoke about the challenges ahead and called on all other Members to join forces to improve the game.
“My re-election presents another opportunity to me and the Executive Committee and indeed all of you to forge together and meet new challenges that confront our Association.”
He concluded that, lots of effort needs to be put into building on the past successes.
“In spite of the modest achievements recorded, a lot still remains to be done. We still have challenges confronting us in all our core areas of work,” he said.
Kwesi Nyantakyi is the first President of the GFA to be democratically re-elected as President of the Association.
On this day 17 June 1962 (Exactly 58 years ago today) Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3 : 1 in the 7th edition of the FIFA World Cup final in Santiago, Chile to defend the trophy they won four years earlier.
Garrincha was the inspiration for a Brazil side that flew across the Andes and mounted a successful defence of the Jules Rimet Cup.
Amarildo, Zito and Vava scored the goals that defeated Czechoslovakia after Josef MASOPUST had put Yugoslavia ahead in the Final but there was no question who was the real hero of the Seleção’s second FIFA World Cup tournament triumph. “The most extraordinary right winger football has known” was French newspaper L’Equipe’s description of Garrincha, the so-called ‘Little bird’ who was, at 25, at the very height of his powers.
Goals scored
Josef MASOPUST (TCH) 15’, AMARILDO (BRA) 17’, ZITO (BRA) 69′ , VAVA (BRA) 78′
On this day 17 June 1954(Exactly 66 years ago today) Sandor Kocsis of Hungary scored the 13th hat-trick of the FIFA World Cup in 9-0 victory over Korea Republic. The win is also a joint biggest winning margin in the history of the competition.
On this day 17 June 2010(Exactly 10 years ago today) Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain became the 48th player to score a hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup history in his team’s 4-1 win against Korea Republic at the Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg.
On this day 17 June 1990(Exactly 30 years ago today) Jose Miguel Gonzalez Martin del Campo “Michel” of Spain scored the 41st hat-trick of the FIFA World Cup against Korea Republic in a 3:1 victory.
On this day 17 June 1976(Exactly 44 years ago today) Germany’s Dieter Muller became the first player in the history of the UEFA EURO Championship history to score a hat-trick playing against Yugoslavia in the semi-finals stage.
Rarely can a player have made such an explosive international debut as this. Muller’s team headed for a 2-1 defeat and elimination when he came off the bench to make his bow with 11 minutes left. Just three minutes later, he had made it 2-2 and extra time was required; two more goals from him completed an impressive comeback and a truly extraordinary hat-trick.
BY: GEORGE ‘Alan Green’ MAHAMAH
