South Africa beat Ghana 3-0 to win a spot in Afcon final against Tunisia
South Africa produced arguably their greatest performance since the return from international isolation, claiming a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Ghana in their Afcon semi-final match played at a packed FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
The Stars, apparently, drowned by the big occasion before a capacity crowd of 75,000, went behind after 22 minutes when Bafana’s offensive midfielder and the most outstanding player of the night, John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu, took advantage of a ball- watching Stars defence to direct a scissor- kick into the corner of the net from a cornerkick.
The goal came two minutes after Stars’ deputy captain Anthony Yeboah, blew a good – looking chance when standing out at the edge of the box after intercepting a South African defensive blunder. He shot off the target with only goalie Andre Arendse insight.
However, the Stars had what should have been a perfect equaliser after 35 minutes when the exciting Ablade Kumah, playing the role of the much missed Abedi Pele, headed home in crowded goalmouth action.
It was the result of a corner kick expertly curled in by Isaac Asare that saw Kwame Ayew heading it towards Yeboah and the deputy captain finally scissor – kicking it to the direction of Ablade, who out jumped Mark Fish to head past Arendse. But Egyptian referee Gamal El Ghandour disallowed the goal for foul.
The Bafana Bafana grew stronger in confidence every passing minute as Buthelezi, Mark Fish and Neil Tovey did anything in defence. Dr Khumalo, Eric Tinkler and Moshoeu completely seized the middled while Mark Williams and Shaun Bartlet at times the overlapping Mark Fish and Lucas Radabe ran amok in the Stars defence.
Little wonder that just 27 seconds after the restart, the South Africans took advantage of some carelessness in the Ghanaian defence as Shaun Bartlet received a long ball from the bewildered Sam Johnson to score the second goal amid deafeaning cheers.
From this stage, the Bafana looked unmatchable and the Black Stars could only keep the scores unaltered because of the hard work of goalkeeper Simon Addo and brother defender Joe Addo but most of the time for the waywardness of the South African fowards.
To ease the pressure Odartey Lamptey was sent in for Kwane Ayew after 60 minutes while Ibrahim Tanko took over the midfield duties of Yaw Achempong in the 75th minute.
But the changes did little to quench the South African fire as the Bafana refuelled their charges by sending on John Moeti for Buthelezi in the 77th minute.
Sam Johnson, with a first yellow card apparently haunting him, was a wreck at this stage, unable to stop the pacey South Africans and his appeals for substitution were ignored by the Stars bench.
Odartey Lamptey was shown a red card in the 85th minute for a dangerous tackle on Moshoeu.
This gave the South African Africans the urge to bury the Stars and they threw all their men in the Ghanaian half at the later stages of the match during which John Moshoeu scored his second goal and the third for his side.
Goals Scored: John Moshoeu ( 22, 87)
Shaun Bartlett (46)
South Africa: Andre Arendse, Sizwe Motaung, Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, Neil Tovey(C), Linda Buthelezi(John Moeti 76), EricTinkler, Doctor Khumalo, John Moshoeu, Shaun Bartlett (Daniel Mudau 84), Mark Williams.
Coach: Clive Barker
Ghana: Simon Addo. Frank Amankwah, Isaac Asare, Afo Dodoo, Joe Addo, Sam Johnson, Yaw Acheampong (Ibrahim Tanko 65), Ablade Kumah,C.K Akunnor, Keane Ayew (Odartey Lamptey 59) , Anthony Yeboah (C)
Coach: Ismael Kurtz
Referee: Gamal El Ghandour (Egypt)
Expulsion: Odartey Lamptey 85
Other AFCON fixtures on 31 January
1996 Semi-finals: Zambia 2-4 Tunisai
2000 Group: Ghana 0-2 Ivory Coast
2000 Group: Cameroon 0-1 Togo
2002 Group: Egypt 2-1 Mali
2002 Group: Senegal 0-0 Tunisia
2004 Group: Nigeria 4-0 South Africa
2004 Group: Morocco 4-0 Benin
2006 Group: Nigeria 2-1 Senegal
2006 Group: Ghana 1-2 Zimbabwe
2010 Final: Egypt 1-0 Ghana
2012 Group: Gabon 1-0 Tunisia
2012 Group: Niger 0-1 Morocco
2015 Quarter-finals: Congo- Brazaville 2-4 DR Congo
2015 Quarter- finals: Equatorial Guinea 2-1 Tunisia AET
By: George ‘Alan Green’ Mahamah
