Brave Ghana stun Brazil in U20 World Cup final

October 17, 2009

Ghana overcame Brazil 4-3 on penalties in the final of the Under-20 World Cup at the Cairo International Stadium here on Friday to become the first African side to win the tournament.

Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu struck the winning spotkick in sudden death after substitute Maicon had spurned the chance to give Brazil their fifth title by placing his penalty over the crossbar.

Ghana fought manfully after the controversial first-half dismissal of Daniel Addo, taking the game to extra-time and then riding their luck in the shootout after 120 goalless minutes.

Goalkeeper Daniel Aygei kept Ghana in the game earlier in extra-time with a point-blank save from Maicon, who had been teed-up 10 yards out by Alex Teixeira’s cut-back.

Reported Manchester United target Douglas Costa twice went close in the additional 30 minutes, while Aygei was also called into action by Wellington Junior.

The game changed with the straight red card shown to Ghana centre-back Addo, who was very harshly dismissed for a halfway-line foul on livewire striker Teixeira in the 37th minute despite the presence of a covering defender.

Ghana’s numerical disadvantage handed their opponents the initiative after an attritional first 45 minutes and Brazil dominated the second half.

Striker Alan Kardec scored Brazil’s winner in the 1-0 semi-final victory over Costa Rica but he was in profligate form against Sellas Tetteh’s men.

He spurned four chances inside 12 second-half minutes, first diverting a cross straight at Aygei before twice heading over and also firing into the side netting after a burst down the left.

Tetteh punched the air at the end of extra-time, proud to have kept the favourites at bay despite being a man down.

His joy turned to delirium when Agyemang-Badu slotted his penalty into the bottom-right corner after Maicon had fluffed his chance to give Brazil an unassailable 4-2 lead in the shootout.

Earlier, Hungary secured victory in their third-place play-off match against Costa Rica after heroics from goalkeeper Peter Kulacsi in another penalty shootout.

Marcos Urena’s fine 81st-minute opener for Costa Rica was cancelled out by an injury-time penalty from Vladimir Koman and in the ensuing shootout Kulacsi saved three penalties and saw one strike the crossbar to earn the Europeans a 2-0 spotkick victory.

CAIRO (AFP)

Tags: addo, alan kardec, alex teixeira, badu, being a man, bottom right corner, Cairo, cairo international, Costa Rica, crossbar, Daniel Addo, Daniel Aygei, delirium, Douglas Costa, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Agyemang-, extra time, final victory, heroics, Hungary, maicon, man down, Manchester, manchester united, Marcos Urena, Peter Kulacsi, sellas, sudden death, target, Vladimir Koman, Wellington

Muslera the hero as Lazio win Italian Cup on penalties

May 14, 2009

ROME (AFP) – Lazio beat Sampdoria 6-5 on penalties following a 1-1 draw to win the Italian Cup at the Stadio Olimpico here on Wednesday and qualify for next season’s Europa League.

Lazio goalkeeper Nestor Muslera saved two penalties in the shoot-out, which went to sudden death after both teams missed one each of their first five.

Frenchman Ousmane Dabo scored the winning penalty after Hugo Campagnaro had seen his shot saved.

Argentine forward Mauro Zarate had given Lazio a fourth minute lead but Giampaolo Pazzini equalised just past the half hour mark.

Lazio were off to a flying start when Zarate lashed a wonder strike past Luca Castellazzi from outside the area on four minutes.

Lazio were in the ascendancy for the first half hour and should have doubled their advantage on 28 minutes.

Castellazzi spilled a long range strike from Aleksandar Kolarov and Macedonia forward Goran Pandev was there to mop up the loose ball but Castellazzi redeemed himself by crucially making a close-range block.

The importance of that save was evident three minutes later as Sampdoria equalised through Pazzini.

Antonio Cassano sent a deep cross over from the left to Lithuanian Marius Stankevicius at the back post and his header across goal was diverted in by Pazzini.

Sampdoria came close on the stroke of half-time but Muslera tipped over Cassano’s fierce free-kick.

On the hour, it was Lazio who threatened again but the late arriving Pasquale Foggia couldn’t control his volley from Pandev’s cross.

Both sides then failed to create anything significant for the remaining half hour and even less so in the 30 minutes of extra-time.

Penalties would separate the sides and Muslera made a good start saving from Cassano.

Lazio’s advantage was wiped out when Tommaso Rocchi hit the post and saw the ball run across the face of goal and away to safety.

But then in sudden death Muslera saved from Campagnaro and Dabo stepped up to stroke home the ball and claim the cup.

Tags: antonio cassano, Argentine, ascendancy, Castellazzi, close range, extra time, free kick, Goalkeeper, goran, Hugo Campagnaro, italian cup, kolarov, lazio, lithuanian, loose ball, Macedonia, Marius Stankevicius, nestor, Nestor Muslera, Ousmane, ousmane dabo, pasquale foggia, rocchi, ROME, sampdoria, Serie A, shoot out, stadio olimpico, sudden death, three minutes, time penalties

Ferguson challenges misfiring United to run riot at Southampton

January 3, 2009

SOUTHAMPTON, England (AFP) – Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has challenged his misfiring players to use this weekends FA Cup third round trip to Southampton as an opportunity to rediscover their scoring touch.

United have not scored more than one goal in a Premier League game since beating Stoke 5-3 at Old Trafford in November.

Ferguson is anxious to put that statistic right at the St Marys Stadium on Sunday ahead of a potentially crucial league meeting with Chelsea next weekend.

"Every game is an opportunity to score goals," Ferguson said. "We made 25 chances against Middlesbrough on Monday and scored once. It is not what we expect but with the players we have, you have to think someone is going to suffer.

"The goalscoring will correct itself at some point because we have good goalscorers."

No team has ever won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup in the same season and Ferguson has already played down Uniteds chances of a historic quadruple.

The United boss is looking for an extended FA Cup run after being knocked out by Southamptons south coast rivals and eventual winners Portsmouth last season.

Ferguson added: "We are competing. The FA Cup is partly down to luck. It is sudden death and anything can happen.

"We have not got the home draw I always look for but they have a good stadium and I expect an interesting game.

"Southampton were one of the most consistent teams for nearly 30 years.

"They had a fantastic record for a provincial team, with some marvellous players.

"They had that golden period under Lawrie McMenemy with lads like Peter Shilton, Mike Channon and Kevin Keegan. More recently, Matthew Le Tissier was top goalscorer in the Premier League.

"Now they are having to deal with young players but their coach has done a great job considering he has no money to work with."

Uniteds preparations have been boosted by Cristiano Ronaldo pledging his future to the club and the 16 million pounds (16.65 million euros) double signing of Serbian youngsters Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic from Partizan Belgrade.

While United are preparing for a second half of the season assault at home and in Europe, Southampton face a battle to preserve their Championship status.

Their Dutch manager Jan Poortvliet says beating Fergusons side would equal the achievement of playing for his country in the 1978 World Cup final against Argentina.

Poortvliet said: "This is your biggest challenge as a manager when you play against the world champions and you can put them out of the FA Cup.

"You will remember the day for the rest of your life. The FA Cup is massive not only in England but also in Holland because it will be on television there.

"For every coach it is special playing against the best in Europe and in the world. It is like a World Cup final.

"Playing for my country in the World Cup final was huge but you can say Sunday has the same prestige."

United will be without injured defender Rio Ferdinand while Polish international Tomasz Kuszczak is set to replace the rested Edwin van der Sar in goal.

Written by: AFP