Ghana Under 20 World Cup Champions over Brazil

Well it was everything an international final should not be.  The Under 20 World Cup Final between Brazil and Ghana should have had it all.  Style, flair, speed and creativity.  At least a few goals as well.  A huge crowd in Egypt showed up and sang, clapped and cheered the whole scoreless game even though the match was more deserving of a nap.

The main influence on the match was when Ghana central defender Daniel Addo was sent off in the 36th minute.  It just killed the match from there.  Playing with 10 men, Ghana showed very little desire to go forward and were killing time as much as possible.  On the other hand Brazil never took the opportuniy pf playing with the extra man to ever open the match up.  The Brazilian creativity and darting runs were never evident as they were only able to manage three shots on goal and the game just fizzled.

The whistle to end the 90 minutes of regular time was a savior as hopes were that possibly in extra time there would be some initiative taken by one of the two teams to go grab the winner.  The opening period of extra time did provide some entertainment as both sides put together some attacks.  Ghana had a prolonged period of attack at the end of the frame earning three corners in succession, but the game remained scoreless.

The 2nd fifteen minutes of extra time slowed once again as neither side cared to make the mistake to blow the title. Penalties were at hand.   As uneventful as the 120 minutes of play were, the penalties were as suspenseful.  Brazil opened the spot kicks and the first five kicks were world class until Ghana missed their third kick.  The door was open for Brazil to claim the Under 20 World Cup.  Misses from both sides left Maicon of Brazil the opportunity to win but he blazed his shot high left.  Ghana made the equalizer and extra kicks were needed.  Teixieira of Brazil stepped up and Agyieh saved for Ghana.  Now Badu could win it for Ghana.  Badu was true as he slotted home low right and Ghana had their championship.