It has been a long time coming but Ghana, one of the powerhouses of African and youth soccer, finally made their mark on the World Cup with a thunderous 2-0 Group E win over Czech Republic on Saturday.
Four times African champions, twice world under-17 champions, twice world under-20 runners-up and producers of players such as Abedi Pele and Anthony Yeboah, there has never been any question over Ghana's pedigree.
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Their debut match in Germany was a tough 2-0 defeat by Italy but they roared back in style on Saturday to demolish a Czech team rated the second best in the world by FIFA who looked superb in beating the United States 3-0 five days ago.
From the moment Asamoah Gyan fired them ahead after 69 seconds with the first competitive goal the Czechs have conceded in four games the Africans looked hungry for the job in hand.
The 20-year-old Gyan now has nine goals from his 15 international appearances and he could virtually have doubled that tally in one afternoon in a remarkable, sustained assault on Petr Cech's goal.
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The big keeper kept everything out -- and Gyan also hit the post with a penalty -- until Sulley Muntari blasted in the second seven minutes from the end.
It was the least Ghana deserved after refusing to countenance sitting on their lead, even after the sending off of Czech centre back Tomas Ujfalusi in the 65th minute.
While other teams have headed for the corner flag to waste time, Ghana looked only goalwards.
If it had gone wrong they would have been accused of the naivety that has too often bedevilled African teams but in a gloriously satisfying justification of positive play, it went right.
Midfielder Michael Essien gave the sort of performance that inspired Chelsea to pay almost 26 million pounds ($48.22 million) for him last year, captain Stephen Appiah was superb while Borussia Dortmund's Matthew Amoah showed just what his country was missing during his five years in the international wilderness.
Physically powerful all over the pitch, Ghana were just too strong for a lightweight Czech side who repeatedly appealed in vain for fouls to the excellent Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo.
Ghana now face the United States in a match where victory could send them into the second round though six points might not be enough if other results go against them.
The chances of that happening though look slim as the depleted Czechs will surely struggle to recover from this.
Already without injured duo Milan Baros and Jan Koller they also lost next-choice striker Vratislav Lokvenc to a second booking as well as Ujfalusi, who plays in Italy for Fiorentina. He will be suspended after his red card and badly missed.
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