Monday, January 10, 2005

Party in Accra!

The second leg of the African Confederations Cup final took place in Kumasi yesterday. Asante Kotoko had the upper hand after a 1-1 in Accra, and were set to take the title. But after a spirited fight and very exiting game, things proved differently.
Hearts of Oak came out with a much better fight than they had done in the first match. At the same time, Kotoko seemed happy to wait for Hearts to come to them, and did not attack much in front of their home crowd.
Five minutes into the second half, things seemed to go Kotoko's way, when Charles 'the terror' Taylor brought the home team ahead, to the spectacular joy of the home crowd.

But Hearts of Oak has the reputation of never giving up. In the first match they equalized in the last minute, and this time, they started attacking, while Kotoko coach Hans Dieter Schmidt, strangely brought in extra defenders.
Ten minutes before full-time, Lawrence Adjei scored the equalizer for Hearts, and the game went into a nerve-wrecking penalty shoot-out.
The players were actually excellent shooters, and the shoot-out went into the 8th kick, when Kotoko Captain Hendricks missed, and in the subsequent kick, Hearts took the trophy.

Celebrations erupted in Accra. I think many are still partying!

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