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| June 20, 2006 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427 |
Ghana lose two key stars for US tie
WUERZBURG, June 19: Ghana said on Monday they were still confident they could win their decisive World Cup game against the United States despite missing the two goalscorers from their 2-0 win over the Czech Republic.
The West African nation, which needs to beat the US to guarantee a place in the last 16, tried to overturn one of the yellow cards which rules striker Asamoah Gyan out of Thursday's match. FIFA rejected the appeal.
Gyan was shown the yellow card in their 2-0 Group E win over the Czech Republic on Saturday for taking a penalty before the referee had blown his whistle. It adds to the yellow card he received against Italy in their opening 2-0 defeat and will rule him out of the next match.
Gyan had said he heard whistles blown from the crowd.
“It was just an appeal on compassionate grounds, it was not supported by the law,” the team's spokesman Randy Abbey told reporters on Monday.
“The referee was right. The issue of him (Gyan) hearing a whistle is ... just unfortunate.”
Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech had tried to prevent the yellow card for Gyan during the game, telling the referee he had also heard a whistle. However, FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said on Monday they had no plans to reverse the decision.
Gyan scored from open play in the second minute of the game against the Czechs and scored the disallowed penalty before hitting the post with his retaken effort.—Reuters
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