World Cup Soccer 2010: Australia vs. Ghana Fans Reactions
The 2010 football World Cup in South Africa has come to life since the spellbinding performance by Argentina against the South Koreans when Argentinean striker Higuain scored a brilliant hat-trick to seal the fate of the opposing team.
All of a sudden, the interest of fans across the world seems to have picked up leaps and bounds. The football pitch has turned into a battle area for supremacy where the players are fighting tooth and nail to bring their teams and respective countries some honour and glory.
In another pulsating encounter, the Australians took the lead against African hopefuls Ghana in only the 11th minute of the match when Brett Holman capitalized on a goalkeeping error by Richard Kingston.
The Africans, after pressing for a goal throughout the 90 minutes of play, made a tremendous recovery and levelled the match when Kewell's handball on the line resulted in a penalty kick.
The spot kick was duly converted by Asamoah Gyan, sending Ghana fans into rapture and wild celebrations.
The Africans kept pilling on the pressure in the dying stages of the match but failed to add a winner and were forced to be content with a draw.
The Australians on the other hand defended stoutly and almost stole a historic win when Joshua Kennedy miffed a close-range shot with just 18 minutes left in the match.
The game drew the interest of passionate football fans in sports-mad Australia, and at the iconic landmark of Darling Harbour. Australian and Ghanaian fans came in large numbers to support their teams in freezing temperatures around midnight on Saturday.
The crowd that had gathered in big numbers sang their national anthems and ended up settling down for the night to watch the game that was a virtual knock out for both the participating teams.
The majority of supporters were Australian socceroos fans, but there was ample support for Ghana in the crowd. When asked about which side were they supporting, one couple said they were undecided. “Undecided in the middle, Ghana or Australia,” said the man.
The crowds sang and danced throughout the night, converting the match screening into a party with some supporters wrapped up in warm winter clothing and blankets.
The fans were found screaming and abusing in utter dismay when the Australian team suffered a devastating blow when Harry Kewell was sent off for a handball in the 25 minute of play.
“Absolute rubbish from the referee, I don't know why every single time we get roasted by them, it's just devastating pretty much,” one socceroos fan said after the game.
Thousands of fans wandered around the area to keep themselves warm under freezing temperatures, and they thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the two teams on the field and many felt that the heat generated on the pitch was helping them stay warm for the encounter.
“A win against Serbia can still get us through but Ghana to me was the weakest team in the group, even though they beat Serbia, they are still the weakest team and to draw there, I think is very key,” said another socceroos fan.
Meanwhile, similar scenes were witnessed in the African nation as Ghanaian fans celebrated in Accra, with their Black Stars drawing 1-1 against Australia in their World Cup Group D match.
The fans of the Black Stars hoped that their team will progress in the tournament as they are one of the favourite African teams in the competition.
Despite the draw, the fans in Accra were happy with the performance of their team.
“Altogether it was a good game, we will just take it like that, because this is our second game and we hope that our next match we will win,” said one fan, while another one felt that his team squandered many chances of closing out the match.
“I think we didn't take our chances, actually we didn't put in much effort in scoring goals. So I think, all the same we did well and it's ok for us”.
The Africans are the best placed team in Group D and have four points from two games.
A draw in their final fixture against three time champions Germany will ensure their progress to the second round of the tournament.
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