This match is the first match in which my prediction was totally spot-on in which I had predicted a 1-0 victory for Ghana against Serbia and turned out that it was really the case. Based on what I have observed in the match itself, this was a match between thesis and anti-thesis. Ghana have extreme pace and great strength as well as being more mobile on the pitch while Serbia was totally a rigid and solid wall at the back with systematic and solid attacking moves when they are attacking.
In the first half, Ghana's goalkeeper was the busier of the two as both teams attack each other in trying to break the deadlock. However, the aforementioned fact of this match being a battle between thesis and anti-thesis inadvertently cancel out each other and thus each team simply absorbs the others' attack. Thus, it was 0-0 at half-time.
The second half saw both teams becoming more intent with Ghana being denied a clear and legitimate penalty call as their player K. Asamoah was fouled quite heavily by two Serbian defenders. In this half, Ghana was the better attacking team as they continued to bombard Serbia's goal but they continued to fail to convert those chances into goals. Both teams tried to inspire changes by making substitutions but still, the deadlock was not to be broken.
The turning point of the match came at around the 73rd minute when the Serbian defender A. Lukovic was sent off as he received his second yellow card of the match. It seemed that the match was to become a carbon copy of the Group C match between Algeria and Slovenia earlier on the day. However, the Serbian manager in my opinion initiated a masterstroke substitution by introducing a defender, Nenad Subotic to replace the sent off defender by sacrificing Milan Jovanovic, an attacker. Thus, their formation became something like a 4-4-1 or 4-3-2 variant instead of trying to keep on attacking with a disoriented 3-4-2 formation for example. Thus, it could be seen that with the sending off, Serbia seemingly was not really affected. In fact, they attacked more and more valiantly and intensely.
At the 82nd minute, Ghana earned a penalty as the Serbian substitute Kusmanovic handled the ball deliberately to break a Ghanaian attack. Asamoah Gyan who had missed many chances in the game finally able to make the score 1-0 as the striker sent the Serbian keeper V. Stojkovic to the wrong way.
The slender 1-0 lead by Ghana proved to be quite precarious as in the last few minutes of the game, especially during the four minutes injury time of the game, Serbia was attacking in a very intense manner and just like how we have seen Liverpool FC when trailing in club football, there was signs of Serbia about to equalize at anytime by then. However, at the very last moments of the game, Asamoah Gyan managed to hit the post at the other end before being substituted with Quincy Owusu-Abeyle to earn his standing ovation from the Ghana fans as well as to run the clock down. Finally, Ghana managed to hold on to their slender lead and becomes the first African team to taste victory in World Cup 2010 and staking their claims to the knockout stages of the competition. While Serbia now needs to regroup swiftly as they tackler Germany next in which if they lose again, they will all be knocked out from the competition.
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