Special Report: 2006 FIFA World Cup  

   NUREMBERG, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Ghana beat the United States 2-1 to qualify for the last 16 of the World Cup from Group E here on Thursday.

    Ghana, who lost to Italy 2-0 and beat the Czech Republic 2-0 in the previous two group games, finished second with six points in the group, behind unbeatable Italy, who defeated the Czech Republic 2-0 in the other game held at the same time.

    "We're happy and you can imagine how happy the whole nation are back in Ghana. I am proud to make 20 million Ghanaians happy," said Ghana's coach Ratomir Dujkovic after the match. "We are in the last 16, we are happy and satisfied."

    Dujkovic added: "For me, it's not a surprise. You should remember I said before that we're going to reach the semifinals.

    "Of course we will wait to see who're our next opponents, but any team who will face the Black Stars will suffer," said a confident Dujkovic. "These big teams like Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States all suffered. You have seen our performance."

    Haminu Draman, 20, opened the scoring for the African side in the 22nd minute, when he dispossessed US midfielder Claudio Reyna and ran in from the left edge of the area to slot the ball past US goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

    Clint Dempsey equalised for the United States in the 43rd minute, when Marcus Beasley stole the ball from Derek Boatend to fire in a superb low ball into the path of Dempsey who shot past keeper Richard Kingston.

    But the African side retook the lead after only five minutes. Ghana skipper Stephen Appiah scored from a penalty after Razak Pimpong had been fouled in the box.

    The Americans fought desperately in the second half in search of an equalizer, but they could not find a way to break Ghana's defence.

    Ghana's top star Michael Essien, who plays with English premier league champions Chelsea, will miss their next game for being shown a yellow card, his second in the tournament.

    Ghana will be most likely to play Brazil in the coming knockout stage. "Brazil are one of the best teams in the world. But we'll try our best. We have nothing to lose. It'll be a nice game. Let's enjoy," the coach said.

    US coach Bruce Arena blamed German referee Markus Merk for awarding Ghana the penalty kick. "We worked real hard to get back in the game. I am disappointed in the judgment of the referee in the penalty call. We would have liked to come out at halftime even,with a chance to win the game. That was a big call.

    "Referees have good days, referees have bad days," Arena said. "There'd be 15 penalty kicks called (if every foul like that was called)."

    "Having said that, we could have been better in the second half with our own opportunities. We controlled the game and we had chances in the second half. But things like that happen." Enditem