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Soccer News of Wednesday, 30 March 2011

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Gyan didn’t know what he was doing for goal

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 — its the first goal we’ve scored against England.”

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.”