Teenage midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi said weeks of intensive training produced his stoppage‑time goal that secured a 1-0 FIFA World Cup win for Ghana over Panama on June 17. Ghana held on after weathering sustained pressure from Panama for large parts of the match.
The winner came in injury time after the Black Stars won possession deep in stoppage time and worked the ball forward through Antoine Semenyo and Brandon Thomas‑Asante, before Yirenkyi arrived in the penalty area to finish. “That’s what we have been practicing since we started our preparation,” Yirenkyi told reporters. “To get the ball to the wings and then put it in the box and then we get runs from people into the box to finish.”
Yirenkyi described the sequence as deliberate. “When we won the ball back, I tried to just play forward and run for it and then hope to see what comes and then I got the ball in the box and I finished it,” he said.
The midfielder credited new coach Carlos Queiroz’s demanding sessions with preparing Ghana’s young squad for the pressures of the World Cup. “He gives us great lessons. We do a lot of training and with a lot of intensity,” Yirenkyi said, calling the work the team’s lessons.
The goal was Yirenkyi’s second in as many games, following his first against Wales in a pre‑World Cup friendly earlier this month. Yirenkyi only made his senior Ghana debut in a 1-2 loss to Nigeria at last year’s Unity Cup and has since enjoyed a breakthrough season with FC Nordsjælland, making 30 league appearances with two goals and six assists.
Speaking on the squad’s balance of experience and youth, Yirenkyi noted the influence of older players. “The older players help us very much as young players, and we just have to take the information in and then do our best,” he said, adding that the group approaches the tournament day by day. Ghana next face England on June 23 in Boston.
