The 2014 World Cup is well on its way with almost each team playing at least one game as the mega event is into its sixth day. On June 16, Ghana were scheduled to play their first game against USA. People in the United States were all tuned to their television sets, but it was not the case with Ghana as they had to buy electricity from their neighbors.
Ghana rationing electricity
The situation in the cocoa producing nation became so bad that they had to resort to rationing of electricity from their neighboring country Ivory Coast to make sure that no person missed the opportunity to see their heroes performing at the biggest stage in the world. This shows how the world cup is taken so seriously in some nations. The power shortage has been mainly due to the low water levels at their hydroelectric dams.
The government of Ghana took some strong measures looking at the situation as they imported 50 megawatts of power from Ivory Coast and slowed down the production at their power consuming manufacturing plants to ensure that there were no blackouts during the two hours of the game.
The match
The game though received a huge build-up as the two countries share quite a history when it comes to the world cup. Ghana was the team responsible for the elimination of United States in the last two editions and this time, the Americans had revenge on their mind. In this world cup, it is this group(G) which has been labeled as the group of death as both Germany and Portugal belong to this group.
The coach of America Jurgen Klinsmann created a lot of controversy before the tournament began as he left out their talismanic center forward and veteran of four world cups Landon Donovan. However, the Americans quickly forgot about it as they won a closely fought match 1-2 against Ghana.
The Americans opened the scoring with captain Clint Dempsey beating many defenders to shoot past the goal keeper within 30 seconds from kick-off that sparked a huge celebration. However, the next goal came only in the 82nd minute as Andre Ayew fired past Tim Howard from the outside of his boot to equalize for Ghana. The game though belonged to the US as the super sub John Brooks Jr. headed in a corner in the 86th minute to give the Americans, the much awaited victory.
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