10-Man Ghana Embarrass Brazil

10 men? No problem. That was Ghana’s mantra as they completely dismantled a dismal Brazilian team to win the Under-20 World Cup on Friday.

Although Brazil had Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere on their payroll, they couldn’t buy themselves a win. Bleeckere was obviously paid to send off Ghana defender Daniel Addo in the 37^th minute after he fouled Brazilian forward Alex Teixeira as a second to last defender – not last defender. The foul was late, but not malicious.

Instead of taking advantage of a 10-man Ghana team, Brazil looked more interested in showboating for their fans at home rather than winning the game. Teixeira could have easily collected and struck home a winner from a Paulo Henrique cross. Instead, for some unknown reason, Teixeira decided to go for an acrobatic scissor kick that sent the ball sailing into the mezzanine, embarrassing himself and his countrymen in the process.

Fundamentals.

This would not be Teixeira’s last miss of the evening.

After Brazil failed to beat the under-manned Ghana team after 120 minutes, the game was to be determined by penalty kicks. Maicon could have won the World Cup for Brazil, but he gloriously shanked his penalty kick high and wide. Failure. He will remember that for the rest of his life.

Next, Teixeira stepped up. Naturally, everyone in Cairo International Stadium knew he was going to miss. He did as he was expected and placed his shot straight at goalkeeper Daniel Agyei. Surprisingly, his shot was on target.

Agyemang-Badu struck home the winning penalty kick to put Brazil out of their misery.

After the game, Brazilian coach Rogerio Lourenco figuratively spat in the Ghana’s face. Lourenco gave the World Cup Under-20 champions no credit.

"Of course, if you have 11 players creating chances they get more tired than a team with nine men at the back," he said.

So, according to Lourenco, it is an advantage to have 10-men instead of 11.

Simply put, Ghana outplayed and outclassed the Brazilians. However, the Brazilians got the honor to play such a great Ghana side.

As Lourenco cried to reporters, Ghana celebrated in Manchester United-like fashion in the background while Brazil’s dejected players fell to their knees in shame and embarrassment in front of a crowd of 68,000.

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