When Asamoah Gyan kept his balance and shot home one of the goals of the World Cup, the applause could be heard the length of Africa. It was vital for this competition’s credibility that one of the continent’s nations emulated Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002 by reaching the quarter-finals and this Ghana did. The Black Stars, who took the lead early through Kevin Prince Boateng, kept their nerve once Landon Donovan’s penalty awarded for a dreadful and unnecessary challenge on Clint Dempsey was fired home off the post. But the real hero of the night was their much-maligned goalkeeper, Richard Kingson, who plays reserve-team football for Wigan and was thought of as Ghana’s one glaringly obvious weak link. He may not be in Fernando Muslera’s class when Ghana meet Uruguay in the quarter-finals but nobody should doubt his bravery. Donovan admitted that the United States, watched by former president, Bill Clinton, were nervous. They had been eliminated by Ghana in 2006 and four years later they were unable to conquer their own recent history.