‘I went from hero to zero’ -Gyan reveals 2010 penalty miss still haunts him

Former Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan, has revealed that he has never been able to get over his penalty miss at the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Uruguay, which denied Ghana a first ever appearance at the semi finals of the competition.

With the game deadlocked at 1-1 and deep into extra time, Luis Suarez handled a certain goal-bound effort from Dominic Adiyiah, and Ghana was awarded a penalty in the last minute of extra time.

Gyan stepped up and saw his effort come off the cross bar. It was the last kick of the game before Ghana went on to lose the penalty shoot-out.

Before the game, Gyan had scored two previous penalties in the group stages, against Serbia and Australia.

Speaking to FIFA+, Gyan revealed that he scored a whopping 20 out of 20 penalties in training the night before the Uruguay game.

“I was one of the top three best players in the world at the time. I was on top of the world, you know. I was confident. A day before the Uruguay game, I shot 20 penalties against our goalkeeper at training. I scored all 20,” Gyan told FIFA.

“I had to cry [after the miss] because I thought I went from hero to zero. I let the whole continent, my country down. Like anytime I’m alone in a room, it just pops in my mind.”

Gyan also admitted he got the technique wrong in taking the penalty.

“I was going to my left side of the goalkeeper. I saw him going to the left and then I saw him going to my right where I was shooting the ball. I didn’t know how the ball went up. Technically, there was something wrong. I didn’t have the right technique,” he said.

Ghana will have a chance to avenge the defeat to the Uruguayans when the two teams meet again at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Ghana has been housed in Group H alongside their South American counterparts, with Portugal and South Korea completing the group.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will run from November 20-18 December, 2022.