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TORONTO (AP) — It was a play Ghana has been practicing throughout its World Cup preparation.And after a night of missed chances, it worked.Caleb Yirenkyi tapped in a cross from Brandon Thomas-Asante in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, and Ghana beat Panama 1-0 on Wednesday night in the teams’ World Cup opener.Thomas-Asante got loose on the left side and fired the ball across the goal mouth. Yirenkyi knocked it in, sending his teammates streaming onto the field to embrace both players.“Get the ball to the wings, and then put it in the box, and we get runs — people in the box to finish,” said the 20-year-old Yirenkyi, who scored his first international goal earlier this month in a friendly against Wales. “I tried (to) just play forward and run forward, and then hope to see what comes in, and yeah, I got the ball in the box and finished.”
Ghana played without midfielder Thomas Partey, who was denied entry into Canada while he awaits trial on rape charges in England.The late goal denied Panama its first World Cup point. The only shot on goal in the first half came two minutes in, when Panama forward Cecilio Waterman latched onto a low cross from Amir Murillo and clipped a ball from the center of the box toward the net. Lawrence Ati-Zigi dove to his right and palmed the ball away.
