More than a decade after that heartbreaking penalty miss against Uruguay, legendary striker Asamoah Gyan continues to suffer abuse over the incident.
Every now and then, trolls are directed at him for missing the penalty that could have made Ghana the first African country to reach the last four of the FIFA World Cup.
The former Black Stars captain has at some points been forced to react to some of the trolls and Michael Oti Adjei, an ace sports journalist who has covered the Black Stars extensively believes it is unfair for people to continue to remind Gyan of that episode.
When quizzed by host Nana Aba Anamoah on Wednesday, November 3, 2021, edition of the StarrChat show on his opinion of the trolls Gyan suffers, Oti Adjei responded: “I think it’s unfair”.
Part of the reason Asamoah Gyan still receives flak for missing the kick is that he robbed then captain Stephen Appiah of a chance to claim his shine by taking the kick.
It has been widely speculated that Appiah had offered to take the penalty but was denied by Gyan.
Oti Adjei is of the conviction that Gyan, more than any other person deserved to take that penalty as he was a player on form then.
He chronicled events that built up to that point as a justification of his opinion that Asamoah Gyan was right to effect the penalty.
“I have also heard a lot of people and theories about who should have taken the penalty and who should not have. There was nothing wrong with Asamoah Gyan taking it. He is not the first person to miss a penalty of that magnitude.
“In the World Cup, we had a penalty in the last ten minutes against Serbia and it was Gyan who stepped up and smashed into the net. The pressure might not be the same as scoring to get into the final but at that time, there had been a number of African teams who had played their opening matches and not won so Gyan scored and gave us our first three points. I also watched Gyan against Australia rolling a penalty.
“Gyan was responsible for two of our first goals in the World Cup. Before that game against Uruguay, he was responsible for three of our goals in the World Cup. He was responsible for the goals that took us to the knockout phase and also responsible for the goal that took us to the quarters.
“In football we say, you let the players in-form take penalties and Gyan was a player in form. Gyan had scored two penalties, scored a great goal against USA and had a good game against Uruguay. Gyan was the right person to take that penalty,” he said. Oti Adjei also sided with Nana Aba Anamoah’s view that Asamoah Gyan should be cut some ‘slack’ for missing the penalty.
He also gave an account of how he reacted and recovered from Ghana’s defeat to Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup.