BY Obakeng Maje

The final Group A match of the 8-Nation International tournament ended in 0-0 draw between Argentina and Ghana in a match played at a cold Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday (29 May) night.
The result sees Argentina being joined by South Africa as the two teams from Group A who will advance to the semi-finals on Friday night, where they will be joined by Brazil and Japan.

The first half was a tight affair with neither side able to carve out opportunities in the respective final thirds of the field.

The quality of play out on the park was excellent, but the commitment levels by both sides and the good organization of the respective units meant that goal chances did not materialise. 

Indeed it was only in the 34th minute that the first chance on goal arrived, which saw Argentine left back Lucas Rodriguez sending in a crisp drive from 20-yards which tipped the bar and kept on rising.
A minute before the interval and the Black Satellites came close to breaking the deadlock when Frank Sarfo-Gyamfi played a defence-splitting pass through to Baba Abdul, but as he slid in to try and get to the ball, it narrowly eluded him.

There was immediate goal-mouth drama at the start of the second half when for the second time in the game the South Americans found the woodwork.
This time it was Juan Vivas who ran in to get on the end of the corner but saw his shot rebound off the turf and into the crossbar.

The goal-box action continued, this time in the Argentina half as Fatawu Abdul put Baba Abdul in on goal, but the latter side-footed wide with the goal at his mercy.
The west African side suffered a set-back with 15 minutes to go when Prince Bafoe was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.

Closing action saw the intensity of the game maintained, with Ghana doing more of the attacking as they searched desperately to try and stay in the tournament, but they were unable to breach a disciplined Argentina defence.