The Black Sharks caused a major upset at the beach soccer tournament after beating defending African champions Senegal 5-3Â on Thursday.
The 5-3 victory for Ghana over Senegal might look like a surprise to the casual fan, as the Senegalese side is the defending CAF African. Beach Soccer Championship winner, and Ghana was a loser in their first two matches of this tournament. But in reality, Ghana had shown flashes of greatness in their other matches and deservedly triumphed in the group stage finale. The win gives Ghana their first victory, and puts them in a tie in the group with Senegal, both with three points. Due to tiebreakers, Ghana still will not be able to advance, but will still be playing in the consolation semi-finals, beginning on Saturday. They will be vying for for 5th place. Senegal earned second in Group B despite two losses and will play on Saturday against Nigeria, the first place team in Group A. The crowd was building and excitement was insanely high, in part because it was the first match of Group B on the final day of group play, and each team could still technically advance, but also because the teams were pressuring the others’ defenses early on. Senegal was asking more questions early but Ghana was playing solid defense and still looking for their spots. The first period remained tied with neither selection scoring and went into the middle frame with the emotion only building. It did not take long for the scoring to open up in the second period, as the Black Stars had a quick goal from Torsu to take the 1-0 lead. Kamara of the Lions of the Teranga did not even need a minute to tie matters again with his own strike, putting the score at 1-1. Ghana was not going to fold under the pressure and score an extremely late period goal from Adjei and then an even later goal to brilliantly take a 3-1 lead into the final frame. Pressure mounted for both sides as a potential place in the semi-finals was on the line and it was obvious that Senegal and Ghana were realizing that more and more. Ghana added to their lead with the second goal of the match for Adjei but the Lions of the Teranga had a reply, two in fact, to put the score at 4-3 for Ghana going into the final minutes of the match. Ghana knew they needed more goals to make sure they advanced to the knockout stages, and the second of the day from Adjei put the score at 5-3. Neither side found pay dirt again and when the last second ticked off the clock, Ghana had triumphed by the same score, 5-3.
Goals: 0-1: Torsu, min. 9 (2); 1-1: Kamara, min. 9 (2); 1-2: Adjei, min. 3 (2); 1-3: Husseini, min. 0 (2); 1-4: Adjei, min. 6 (3); 2-4: Fall, min. 5 (3); 3-4: Diouf, min. 3 (3); 3-5: Adjei, min. 3 (3).