Gyan: Looking ahead
I will just put that behind me and concentrate on my career because if I keep on thinking about it, it is going to disturb me.
Asamoah Gyan
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Asamoah Gyan is determined to put his World Cup heartache firmly behind him as Ghana prepare to face England on Tuesday night.
The 25-year-old Sunderland striker, who will run out in the international friendly at Wembley, admits his mind does sometimes wander back to his late quarter-final penalty miss against Uruguay which ultimately cost his country a spot in the semi-finals last summer.
But Gyan is confident he is young enough to make up for that setback in the future, and already has his sights set on the 2014 World Cup.
Incident
He said: “Sometimes I do sit down and think about it because it would have been the first time an African team had qualified for the semi-finals, and it didn’t happen due to that incident.
“But we have got more years, I am so young. Sometimes, I do think about it – maybe at the next World Cup, we can do something more.
“The penalty is forgotten. I just said to myself, there are bigger players than me who have missed that kind of penalty – Roberto Baggio, (Michel) Platini, Maradona.
“I will just put that behind me and concentrate on my career because if I keep on thinking about it, it is going to disturb me.”
Gyan has high hopes for Ghana when they meet England for the first time after establishing themselves as a team to be reckoned with in South Africa.
The forward, who arrived on Wearside from Rennes last summer, added: “We did so well at the World Cup. Before, people didn’t know Ghana and we have proved to everyone by what we did at the World Cup that we are capable of doing something big.
“That’s what we demonstrated at the World Cup and there will be much respect for us because we did very well.
“In football, anything can happen, so we will just go there and make sure we play our normal game against England.
Promise
“We promise we are going to give them a good match and we will see what happens.
“We did so well in the World Cup and they would like to see more.
“But we are not playing an easy side, so it’s a challenge to us. We have to demonstrate to them that what we did at the World Cup wasn’t luck, we knew what we were doing.
“We have to prove to everyone what we are capable of.”
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Gyan ready to move on