Nigeria Content Online

Asamoah
Gyan said he wasn’t sure what he was doing before scoring his stunning
equaliser for Ghana against England at Wembley, but wished he could
have celebrated his “historic goal” with a dance afterwards.

The 25-year-old
striker, who moved to Sunderland after his outstanding performances for
Ghana in last year’s World Cup, struck in stoppage time to give his
side a richly-deserved 1-1 draw.

Collecting the ball
on the edge of the penalty area he jinked one way and another, dummied
England defender Joleon Lescott twice then curled a left-foot shot into
the far corner of Joe Hart’s net.

Gyan will always be
remembered for missing the penalty against Uruguay that would have
taken Ghana into the semi-finals of the World Cup but now also has his
country’s first goal against England on his soccer CV.

“I am happy because it’s an important goal for the country and for the fans,” he told reporters.

“I was twisting and turning, but honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just trying to protect the ball.

“The English
defenders are very intelligent, but they did not know if I was going to
pass the ball, but I thought, well they might push me down, but they
didn’t do that, so I thought, I’ve got a chance, so I took my chance.”
“This goal is something historic – it’s the first goal we’ve scored
against England.

“64 million dollar goal”

Asked if this was
the “64 million dollar goal” that will make Europe’s big teams sit up
and take notice of him, he replied: “No, I am a player at Sunderland, I
am just concentrating on that. I am very young, I have lots more to do
in football, so I am just working hard.”

“I just wanted to
dance after scoring it, the atmosphere was wild- I didn’t get the
chance to dance because suddenly everyone else was on top of me, but
maybe I will next time.” The goal gave Ghana a deserved draw in a
superb match in which England coach Fabio Capello made seven changes
from the side that beat Wales 2-0 in a Euro qualifier on Saturday,
giving debuts to second-half substitutes Matt Jarvis and Danny Welbeck
and a first start to Gary Cahill after two substitute appearances.

The Italian said that despite giving up the late equaliser he was delighted with his team’s performance.

“I’m really happy because I saw a fantastic game, not a friendly game,” he said.

“Every tackle was a
fight, the players played very well, the players that played not a lot
of games here, the new players, played well.

“It was interesting
for me to know the value of these players when they need to play here
at Wembley, in the senior shirt. All the players played really really
good.” England took the lead after 43 minutes when Andy Carroll scored
his first goal for his country with a fierce, low left-foot drive that
flew into Richard Kingson’s net.

Capello said he was
delighted for the 21-year-old that he found the net because he was not
yet fully fit after recovering from a thigh injury that delayed his
Liverpool debut by several weeks.

“I remember Carroll before he suffered the injury problems. He’s the
same player, runs a lot, always fight, he needs games and I am
delighted he scored tonight.”