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Sport \| Soccer

Formality turns into failure for Amaglug-glug

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 15 2007 09:14

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What South African soccer officials had naively viewed as a formality on Sunday turned into failure as Amaglug-glug went down 3-1 to Ghana's Black Meteors at the Elwak Stadium in Accra and surrendered all hope of qualifying for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

From Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to Amaglug-glug's enduringly optimistic Steve Komphela and the South African Football Association rank-and-file in general, the hope had been that the Olympic soccer tournament would provide a wonderful opportunity to build a squad for the 2010 World Cup.

Instead, the South Africa Under-23 team have slumped to the bottom of their qualifying group with a draw and two defeats from their three games, with African heavyweights Ghana and Nigeria left to slug it out for the right to compete in China next year.

And in an uncanny repeat of the 3-1 defeat against Ghana in the home game at Potchefstroom's Olën Park, Amaglug-glug again trailed disastrously 2-0 at half-time and were again ultimately subjected to a stunning brace of goals from the lethal Asamoah Gyan.

It would be surprising if Komphela and his players don't have recurring nightmares of this bustling Ghanaian striker, who taught them an abject lesson on how to capitalise on scoring opportunities.

An Asamoah header had Ghana on the road to victory in only the 13th minute, and a second headed goal from Bernard Kumordzi in the 36th minute left Amaglug-glug struggling in their bid for victory.

Santos striker Eleazer Rodgers belatedly brought South Africa back into the picture with a headed goal in the 55th minute after an impressive build-up by Daine Klate and Bryce Mmoon.

With Ghana briefly demonstrating signs of panic after this setback, Amaglug-glug were almost on level terms 10 minutes later when a miscued Black Meteors clearance ricocheted off the post instead of providing a much-needed "own goal".

And with the sands of time running out for Amaglug-glug, Asamoah was on hand to record his second goal of the game and fourth in the qualifying tournament against South Africa, launching, in the process, the Black Meteors and their supporters in the 10 000-strong crowd into orbit. -- Sapa

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