Ghana struck a blow for African pride, defeating Brazil in a penalty shootout Friday at the FIFA U-20 World Cup final in Cairo.
After previously losing in the final to Brazil (in 1993) and to Argentina (2001), Ghana finally came good on Friday, to become the first African team to win the FIFA U-20 World Cup since the inaugural competition in 1977.
The two teams battled to a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of extra time, before Ghana won 4-3 in the shootout.
Ghana’s Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu scored the winning penalty to make it 4-3 after Brazil’s Maicon missed a chance to win it at 3-2.
Ghana was reduced to 10 men when defender Eric Addo was controversially shown a red card in the 37th minute when he was judged to be the last man back as he hauled down Brazil’s Alex Teixeira.
Hungary wins bronze
Seeming dead and buried, Hungary pulled off a minor miracle to win the bronze medal earlier in the day in Cairo.
Down a goal late in the third-place game, Hungary scored in injury time to level the score and then beat Costa Rica 2-0 in the shootout.
After an uneventful opening 45 minutes, the pace picked up considerably in the second half, with both teams looking to break the deadlock.
Costa Rica appeared to have secured a win when forward Marcos Urena scored his third goal of the tournament with nine minutes left in regulation.
But Costa Rican defender Jose Rena hauled down Hungary’s Krisztain Nemeth inside the penalty area late in the game, earning his second yellow card of the game.
Vladimir Koman converted from the penalty spot to send the game to a shootout.
Credit: cbc.ca
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