Ghana fairytale ends in penalty pain
The vuvuzelas were abruptly silenced in downtown Accra on Friday as Ghana's World Cup party cruelly ended with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Uruguay in a quarterfinal they came within one kick of winning.
"Why, why?" 32-year-old Janet Akushieka asked as she turned her back on the giant TV screen where earlier she and hundreds of others were cheering the Black Stars, the last remaining African side in the first World Cup hosted by the continent.
"It's so painful, so devastating. We came so close but we denied ourselves the victory," she said of a penalty miss by Ghana's Asamoah Gyan in the last seconds of extra time that would have earned Ghana an unprecedented semifinal place for an African side.
"Oh Asamoah Gyan, Asamoah Gyan," groaned bar attendant Kofi Aboagye as he took off his headband in the Ghanaian national colours, blaming Gyan for a spot kick which rattled the bar and sent the match into a shoot-out in Johannesburg.
The burden of expectation on Ghana rose to fever pitch this week as Africans from across the continent rallied to the team after their second-round 2-1 victory over the United States last week.
Former President John Kufuor called the Uruguay tie a "match of destiny", predicting a Ghanaian victory that would establish Africa as a global footballing force.
The Ghanaian team were put on a $50 000 bonus to win Friday's match, about 100 times the average income per capita in the aid-reliant West African nation.
But it was not to be, despite special Christian prayer sessions laid on to invoke divine support for the cause.
Yet as the party atmosphere of the past week fizzled out, some Ghanaians were already shrugging defeat off.
"I am quitting smoking ... it's my last stick after 25 years and it is to honour our gallant heroes," said cigar-puffing 45-year-old Johnson Agbadi, who runs a car hire services outfit.
"It's a great game and this is how I want to remember it. I should look back one day and say I stopped smoking the day the Black Stars faced the world."