RUSTENBURG – Africa will have a presence in the World Cup quarter-finals.Asamoah Gyan scored in the third minute of extra time yesterday to give Ghana a 2-1 win over the United States and make them only the third African team in the tournament’s history to reach the last eight.The teams were level at 1-1 through 90 minutes at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium before Gyan ran onto a long pass and held off defenders Carlos Bocanegra and Jay DeMerit to smash a left-foot shot over goalkeeper Tim Howard from about 12 metres.Ghana will now meet Uruguay in the next round at Soccer City on Friday.“Yeah, third African country qualified for the quarter-finals,” Gyan said. “We’ve made everybody proud; not Ghana alone, the whole of Africa.”Kevin-Prince Boateng had put Ghana ahead in the fifth minute with a low shot from the edge of the area. He ran into space that opened as DeMerit kept retreating, then sent a ferocious shot that beat the diving Howard at his near post.Landon Donovan equalised with a 62nd-minute penalty after Jonathan Mensah got his second yellow card of the tournament, ruling him out of the quarter-finals, for swiping away Clint Dempsey’s legs as he broke from deep.Donovan crouched in contemplation as he prepared to take the penalty kick, picking at the grass and ignoring the players around him before getting up to steer his kick in off the right-hand post.It was Donovan’s US record fifth goal at the World Cup and 45th in international football.The United States threw Howard into attack for injury time at the end of the match, but Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson punched the ball away from a corner and the Americans never came any closer.“I really felt when we got to 1-1 there were some chances for us,” United States coach Bob Bradley said. “Early in the overtime we go down again early. At that point, with everything we put into the game early, we didn’t have enough after that.”Both teams created enough chances to have won the game in normal time, with Ghana dominating the first 45 minutes before Bradley stabilised his team at half-time with the second of two substitutions. (AP)Line-upsUnited States – Tim Howard, Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegra, Jay DeMerit, Jonathan Bornstein, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark (Maurice Edu, 31), Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore (Herculez Gomez, 90), Robbie Findley (Benny Feilhaber, 46).
Ghana – Richard Kingson, Hans Sarpei (Lee Addy, 73), Asamoah Gyan, John Pantsil, John Mensah, Anthony Annan, Samuel Inkoom (Sulley Muntari, 113), Jonathan Mensah, Dede Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah, Kevin-Prince Boateng (Stephen Appiah, 78).
