Ghanas Inspiring History Unveiled
Discover Ghanas rich history, from ancient kingdoms to modern democracy, through vibrant festivals, stunning…
Ghana-Net.com · People of Ghana · Sport · South Africa · June–July 2010
2 July 2010, Soccer City, Johannesburg, the last minute of extra time. A whole continent was behind Ghana, the only African team left in the first World Cup ever held in Africa. A free kick, a scramble, Dominic Adiyiah's header flying towards the net, and Luis Suárez, standing on the goal line, knocked it away with both hands. Red card. Penalty. If Asamoah Gyan scored, Ghana would be the first African team ever in a World Cup semi-final. The ball hit the crossbar and went up into the Johannesburg night. Ghana lost the shootout. Sixteen years later, Ghanaians still remember exactly where they were.
Ghana had reached the World Cup for the first time only in 2006, in Germany, and got to the last sixteen. For South Africa 2010 the coach was the Serbian Milovan Rajevac, a defensive organiser. His best player, Michael Essien, missed the tournament through injury, and Sulley Muntari was in and out of favour.
So Rajevac trusted youth. Several of his players, among them André Ayew, Samuel Inkoom and Dominic Adiyiah, had won the Under-20 World Cup for Ghana in Egypt the year before. Up front was Asamoah Gyan; in goal the veteran Richard Kingson; John Mensah led the defence as captain on the pitch. And there was a new arrival from Germany: Kevin-Prince Boateng, Berlin-born, who had switched to his father's country shortly before the tournament.
Brother against brother: in the Germany match Kevin-Prince Boateng played for Ghana and his half-brother Jérôme Boateng for Germany, the first time two brothers had faced each other at a World Cup. Both grew up in Berlin, sons of a Ghanaian father. It was a family story of Ghana and Germany in one game.
In the round of sixteen in Rustenburg Ghana met the United States, the team they had also beaten in 2006. Boateng scored after five minutes with a low shot past Tim Howard; the Americans equalised from a penalty. In the third minute of extra time Gyan ran on to a long ball, held off two defenders and scored. Ghana 2–1 USA.
Ghana became only the third African team to reach a World Cup quarter-final, after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. With every other African side already out, the whole continent, and South Africa's own crowds, adopted the Black Stars as "BaGhana BaGhana".
The quarter-final was played before about 84,000 people at Soccer City in Johannesburg, the stadium of the final. The winner would meet the Netherlands. Ghana were short of players through injury and suspension, but in first-half stoppage time Sulley Muntari hit a long, swerving shot from distance past the goalkeeper: Ghana 1–0. Early in the second half Diego Forlán curled a free kick in to equalise. Ninety minutes, then thirty more, and it was still 1–1.
In the final minute of extra time Ghana won a free kick and sent it into the box. In the scramble Stephen Appiah's shot was blocked on the line by Luis Suárez's knee. The ball came out to Dominic Adiyiah, whose header was going in, and Suárez, on the line, pushed it away with his hands.
Suárez was sent off. Ghana had a penalty with the last kick of the game. Asamoah Gyan, who had already scored two penalties in the tournament, struck it hard. It hit the top of the crossbar and flew over. Suárez, walking off, celebrated by the tunnel.
In the shootout Gyan showed enormous courage and scored Ghana's first penalty. Stephen Appiah scored too. Then the goalkeeper Fernando Muslera saved from John Mensah and Adiyiah, and Sebastián Abreu chipped the decisive penalty gently down the middle. Uruguay won 4–2 on penalties.
The argument that never ended: Rajevac called it an injustice, and much of the world called Suárez a cheat. Others said he had simply broken a rule and paid the price the rules set: a red card and a penalty. The penalty was the chance, and it was missed. Both things are true. What made it unforgivable for many Ghanaians was not the handball but the celebration afterwards.
The Black Stars came home as heroes, with crowds lining the roads from the airport to Accra. Ghana's government, under President John Evans Atta Mills, welcomed the team; our Atta Mills audio and video archive covers the presidency of that year. Rajevac left in September 2010. Gyan went on to become Africa's top scorer at World Cups, but he has said that the miss followed him for years.
2010 remains Ghana's best World Cup. Since then Cameroon's and Senegal's quarter-finals have been matched, but it took until 2022, when Morocco reached the semi-finals in Qatar, for an African team to go one round further than Ghana did in Johannesburg.
Fate put Ghana and Uruguay in the same group at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Before the game, Suárez refused to apologise, saying he had not missed the penalty. On 2 December 2022 Uruguay won 2–0; André Ayew, one of the 2010 youngsters, had a penalty saved. But Uruguay needed another goal to go through and did not get it: both teams went out that night. Many Ghanaians called it revenge of a kind.
The 2010 Black Stars were not the most gifted team Ghana ever produced; without Essien they were young, well organised and brave. That is what made them special. They carried a continent further than it had ever gone at its own World Cup, and they lost not because they were beaten but because of a hand on the line and a ball that struck the bar. Suárez did what many professionals would do and celebrated what few would. Gyan missed and then stepped up again in the shootout. Of the two, it is Gyan who comes out of that night with honour.
Verified: 30 September 2026. Results, dates and venues of Ghana's five matches, the goals, the handball by Luis Suárez on Dominic Adiyiah's header, Gyan's penalty against the bar, the 4–2 shootout with saves from John Mensah and Adiyiah, the Boateng brothers, the Under-20 core of the squad, Rajevac's departure and the 2022 rematch follow FIFA-based records, Wikipedia, GHANAsoccernet, Goal and CBC. Corrections welcome and will be published in full.