Gyan - I will bounce back

Striker determined not to dwell on penalty miss

Last updated: 3rd July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Gyan - I will bounce back

Gyan: Vowing to bounce back

I'll bounce back, I'm strong mentally. I had the courage to take the penalty, but that's normal, I'm the penalty taker.

Asamoah Gyan
Quotes of the week

Related links

Teams

Also see

Asamoah Gyan has vowed to bounce back after missing a last-gasp penalty which would have sent Ghana through to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

The striker, who had scored twice from the spot earlier in the tournament, was presented with the opportunity to knock out Uruguay with the final kick of extra-time.

Luis Suarez's handball on the line from Dominic Adiyiah's header resulted in the Ajax striker being sent off, but Gyan blasted his penalty against the crossbar.

Gyan did then score in the shoot-out, which Ghana lost 4-2, and he is confident his miss in extra-time will not have a lasting effect on his career.

Courage

"I'll bounce back, I'm strong mentally," said Gyan. "I had the courage to take the penalty, but that's normal, I'm the penalty taker.

"But that's not the game, now he (Suarez) is the hero in his country, the ball was going in, he stopped it and I missed the penalty. That's the way it is."

Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson offered his support to Gyan and he believes it was unfair that the Black Stars were denied a dramatic winner by Suarez's handball.

Kingson said: "We were consoling him, it's a game so we need to forget about it.

"You can see from the beginning that it's unfair on our side, the referee should have allowed the goal, but he gave a penalty.

"It's very unfortunate, but it's also part of the game, you have to accept it and correct the mistake next time.

"Many things happen in football, but you have to understand that little decisions can change every situation and that happened today.

"If the referee gives a goal we qualify for the semis, but he didn't, he gave a penalty.

"I'm a little bit down, but I'm also happy for myself. There's nothing we can do now, we have to take it out of our minds and move forward.

"I'm very proud of the team, it's a young team and even in our country no one expected us to get to this stage."

World Cup. Click here to bet.