The teams were level at 1-1 through 90 minutes at 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 meters (yards).
Ghana will now meet Uruguay in the next round at Soccer City
on Friday.
“Yeah, third African country qualified for the quarterfinals,”
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 equalized with a 62nd-minute penalty after Jonathan
Mensah got his second yellow card of the tournament, ruling him out of the
quarterfinals, 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 stabilized his team at halftime with the second of two substitutions.
United States midfielder Ricardo Clark, recalled to the starting
lineup in an attempt to add solidity to the American midfield, had given Ghana
its first real opening when he gave the ball away under pressure in the center circle.
Ghana defended in numbers to deny space for the likes of Donovan
and Dempsey to attack from deep, and countered swiftly through Boateng, Dede
Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah and Gyan when it did win possession.
Clark got a yellow card and only played until the 31st before
Bradley withdrew him for Maurice Edu. Bradley then took off Robbie Findley at
halftime, undoing the other of the two personnel changes he had made to his
starting lineup.
Although Boateng curled a shot over the bar and Gyan put wide
a long-range effort, the United States started to piece together some good
attacks and Dempsey and substitute Benny Feilhaber were both denied only by
well-timed tackles in the area.
Ayew will also miss the next round after picking up a booking.
The west African players seemed to have learned their lesson
from the last World Cup when they attacked Brazil too freely in their
second-round meeting and were beaten 3-0 by the five-time world champions.
After reaching the final of last year's Confederations Cup in
South Africa, the United States had high hopes of emulating its 2002 feat of
making it to the World Cup quarterfinals. But Ghana eliminated the Americans
for a second straight tournament, having won 2-1 in a 2006 group game to reach
the round of 16 in Germany.
There were almost as many England flags as there were Stars
and Stripes on display by fans around the stadium, with many English fans
having bought tickets in expectation of seeing their team.
But those calculations were thrown out when the United States
won Group C over England on goal difference, giving the Americans the game in
Rustenburg and forcing England into an unexpectedly early confrontation with
Group D winner Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
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).
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).
