A Dream Vanished

        Asamoah Gyan calmly places the ball at the 12 yard mark and walk back into position, the hope of Ghana’s, and the whole continent of Africa’s, World Cup dreams rests on his shoulders. Gyan had been at this spot twice already during the World Cup and each time has come away with a goal. So nothing made us think that anything else would happen. Most saw Ghana already advancing to the semifinals making them the first African nation to do so. As we all know Gyan ran up and struck the ball with great pace and when the Uruguay goalie Fernando Muslera, dove it looked good but the ball struck the crossbar and bounded out of bounds. The entire Ghanaian team was awestruck with what could have been while the Uruguayan team celebrated as if they had already won. Fast forward to the penalty shootout and Gyan was the first to take one for his side, he calmly placed the ball in the upper right corner as I watched I couldn’t help but wonder what could have been if he had done that a few minutes earlier.
        At the conclusion of the match Uruguay prevailed by winning the shootout 4-2 sending Africa’s last remaining team home. It was a sad sight for me to see; one team celebrating on one half of the pitch while seeing the Ghana team collapse in tears. Gyan was so distraught that it took a few of his teammates to get him off the ground and off the field. This wasn’t the greatest match of the World Cup so far but it definitely is going to be one of the most remembered, not for the plays that won it but for the one that slipped painstakingly away and also for the handball that saved the game for Uruguay. 
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