Posted: Saturday, October 17, 2009     Source:

Satellites savour historic feat

Ghana's all conquering form at the Fifa U-20 World Cup on Friday will certainly go down as the team's best achievement.

Prior to kick off, the Black Satellites had never lifted the title with their best shot being losing finalist in 1993 to Brazil and 2001 against Argentina.

The Black Satellites' quest for glory was dealt a major blow when the struggling African Champions had defender, Daniel Addo shown the red card with just 37 minutes of the game gone.

And the next eighty-three minutes of the nervy final in Cairo showed Ghana's resilience against a better team and four-time winners, Brazil.

For coach Sellas Tetteh, who has now clinched the double at this level after guiding Ghana to the African title earlier this year, the best sides played for the World Cup.

"The two best teams reached the final and it took a sudden-death penalty shoot-out to separate us," Sellas said.

"It was a final that had everything: good football, passion, and emotion. But to win it? Well, it's a great feeling. I'm emotional, but I'm happy. We ended this tournament so well and I am so proud of my boys, especially as they were down to ten men for the vast majority of the match."

It had to take the penalty shoot-out to decide the tie.

"I had a feeling that Maicon might miss, or I might have saved his penalty, because he took such a long time to take it," said Black Satellites stopper, Daniel Agyei in an exclusive chat with FIFA.com after the match.

"I knew I'd save a couple of penalties, so when I missed, I thought we might have the advantage. This is a win for Africa, not Ghana. I hope it brings people happiness all over the continent. This is our night."

After Alex Teixeira's penalty had been saved to leave the shoot-out score tied at 3-3, Agyemang-Badu slotted the ball past Rafael to write history for Ghanaian and African football.

"I knew I was going to score the penalty," he smiled when speaking to FIFA.com." I always had confidence when I stepped up to take it. But during the match when we went down to ten men, we never lost that confidence, we never stopped believing. It's the best moment of my career."

And for captain Andre Ayew the great feeling of making history will linger on.

"It was absolutely great," he told FIFA.com afterwards. I'd collected the trophy for the team at the African U-20 tournament, but tonight it felt extra special. We fought like dogs to win it, but we're world champions and all the tiredness goes away when you climb those steps to collect the gold medal. To be the first African country to win this cup is absolutely fabulous."