Such is life, you can’t choose what your earliest World Cup memory is. The very nature of the notion means that it almost certainly has to be something of great significance that happened, for better or for worse.
For Bristol City striker Antoine Semenyo, rather unfortunately, it’s that quarter-final against Uruguay at South Africa in 2010. The Black Stars were on the cusp of becoming the first African team to reach the last four in the tournament’s history only for Asamoah Gyan to strike a last-minute penalty against the crossbar.
The game went to a penalty shoot-out and Uruguay held their nerve to progress. Of course, it was much more than just a penalty miss by Gyan - a legend in his homeland - it was the incident that led up to it as Luis Suarez cleared Dominic Adiyah's off the line, deliberately with his hand, sacrificing his involvement in the game to keep his side in the contest.
