LEADALL: Ghana make Africa proud, meet Uruguay in quarter-finals

Jun 26, 2010, 23:07 GMT

Johannesburg - Ghana, the only African side left in the World Cup, conquered the hearts of a continent with a dramatic 2-1 defeat of the United States on Saturday.

The result meant Ghana are only the third African side ever to reach a World Cup quarter-final after Senegal in 2002 and Cameroon in 1990.

The Black Stars now meet Uruguay, who defeated South Korea 2-1 in Port Elizabeth earlier in the day.

'The entire continent is behind us,' said Ghana defender Hans Sarpei.

Egged on by former US President Bill Clinton and 35,000 other spectators, Ghana and the US produced one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament, the first to be decided during extra time, with continuous end-to-end play.

Berlin-born Kevin-Prince Boateng gave Ghana a dream start with a fifth-minute lead, but Landon Donovan levelled just after the hour off a penalty to take the game into extra-time.

Asamoah Gyan then restored Ghana's lead in the 93rd minute, and the Black Stars held out through a mixture of discipline and desperation to keep alive the chances of the only African team left in the South African tournament.

Unlike the game against Algeria, when they clinched a last-gasp winner, the Americans' fighting spirit was not enough to see them through, with the inspirational Donovan admitting after that they paid for their inexperience.

'One minute you are on top of the world, the next you are at the bottom of the mountain,' a disappointed Donovan said.

In Saturday's earlier Round of 16 match, a brace from Man of the Match Luis Suarez was enough to see Uruguay prevail over South Korea.

Uruguay relied on counter-attacks to wear down the South Koreans, who managed only once to breach their well-organized defence before a crowd of 30,600 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

After taking an early lead, Uruguay allowed the Asian team to come back into the game and grab a second-half equalizer with a header from Bolton's Lee Chung Yong before Suarez settled the match with a curling shot 10 minutes from the end.

'We had to pull ourselves together after the equalizer,' Suarez said after the game. 'It was a great feeling to score the winning goal. It was a good shot, but a bit lucky.'

It is the first time that two-time champions Uruguay have reached the last eight since 1970, when they made it to the semi-finals.

The result was huge for Uruguay, a small country whose previous World Cup triumphs date back to 1930 and 1950.

'There's only 3 million inhabitants in Uruguay and we've waited a long time for something like this and now it's happening,' said Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez.

'We are among the eight best teams in the World Cup. It's been such a long time and we've never managed to achieve this goal - our intention is to face our next match and try to win it,' Tabarez said.

South Korea, for their part, leave the tournament with their heads high after some impressive performances in South Africa.

'We have a young team with a lot of potential. They learned today what it's like to play football at the highest level,' said Cha Du Ri, who plays in the German Bundesliga for Freiburg.