06/17/26 09:44:00
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06/17 21:42 CDT Caleb Yirenki's late goal gives Ghana a 1-0 victory over Panama
in the World Cup
Caleb Yirenki's late goal gives Ghana a 1-0 victory over Panama in the World Cup
By OWEN CAMEROS
Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) --- It was a play Ghana has been practicing throughout its World
Cup preparation.
And after a night of missed chances, it worked.
Caleb Yirenkyi tapped in a cross from Brandon Thomas-Asante in the fifth minute
of second-half stoppage time, and Ghana beat Panama 1-0 on Wednesday night in
the teams' World Cup opener.
Thomas-Asante got loose on the left side and fired the ball across the goal
mouth. Yirenkyi knocked it in, sending his teammates streaming onto the field
to embrace both players.
"Get the ball to the wings, and then put it in the box, and we get runs ---
people in the box to finish," said the 20-year-old Yirenkyi, who scored his
first international goal earlier this month in a friendly against Wales. "I
tried (to) just play forward and run forward, and then hope to see what comes
in, and yeah, I got the ball in the box and finished."
Ghana played without midfielder Thomas Partey, who was denied entry into Canada
while he awaits trial on rape charges in England.
The late goal denied Panama its first World Cup point.
The only shot on goal in the first half came two minutes in, when Panama
forward Cecilio Waterman latched onto a low cross from Amir Murillo and clipped
a ball from the center of the box toward the net. Lawrence Ati-Zigi dove to his
right and palmed the ball away.
The goalkeeper left the game at halftime after a couple of hard collisions. He
was replaced by Benjamin Asare. Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said Ati-Zigi would
be evaluated further on Thursday.
The result puts Ghana at the top of Group L with England, which beat Croatia
4-2 earlier in the day.
After the first hour, when chances came at a premium at rainy BMO Field, the
match opened up and both teams started smashing shots toward the net.
In the 65th minute, Thomas-Asante broke through Panama's back line and played a
ball along the 6-yard box toward Jordan Ayew, but Jiovany Ramos ran up from
behind with a tackle to prevent the tap-in.
"Panama, they had a great first half. They kept the ball really well and we
struggled with the press," said Antoine Semenyo, who started the scoring play
with a pass to Thomas-Asante. But "slowly into the second half we had that
energy to go up and press and cause problems, and that led to the winner."
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Owen Cameros is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at
Penn State.
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
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