Black Satellites beat Uganda for African Games gold medal

Ghana’s U-20 national male team, the Black Satellites secured gold to complete Ghana’s dominance in football at the 13th African Games in Accra. Talismanic forward Jerry Afriyie was the hero after snatching victory at the stroke of full-time to leave the Ugandans heartbroken.

Desmond Offei’s side started brilliantly in front of the near full-capacity Accra Sports Stadium. Jerry Afriyie bundled into the net from a free kick but saw the celebrations cut short due to an infringement on the goalkeeper before the goal. The Black Satellites went down in tempo but that did not present any serious threats from the Ugandans as Ghana slowly picked themselves back up.

Neither side could master an effort that would separate the sides as they headed for the break on level terms. Ghana came back to continue from where they left off in the first half. Jerry Afriyie again came very close to opening the scoring but his effort was choked off for another infringement on the goalkeeper.

Uganda did however, came close when they beautifully stringed neat passes before sending a powerful shot that was well saved by Yakubu for Ghana. Ghana’s dominance continued with Magada having to make a couple of great stops to keep the Black Satellites at bay.

But that would not last long as Ghana broke Uganda’s resilience in the dying embers of the game. Jerry Afriyie who saw two efforts ruled out scored his third of the competition with a powerful strike assisted by Kelvin Nkrumah of Medeama SC.

Ghana started the competition slowly after drawing goalless with Congo in their opening match. But that was the only glitch as they went ahead to see off Gambia 3-1, Benin 0-1 and Senegal 0-1 in the semi-final. Uganda meanwhile saw off Nigeria 2-0, Senegal 1-0 and South Sudan 1-0. Their most exciting one was the 4-2 victory in the semi-final over Congo when they came from behind to snatch victory.