The Black Meteors missed out on a place at next year’s Tokyo Olympics after losing 6-5 on penalties to South Africa on Friday.
The third-place playoff match finished 2-2 after 90 minutes with the game heading straight to a shootout.
The Meteors had already lost on penalties at the tournament, only days earlier in their semi-final match against Ivory Coast.
This time, things seemed on the up after South Africa missed their first penalty.
The Stars were perfect until Kingsley Fobi missed his spot-kick with the South Africans scoring their remaining kicks to take it into sudden death.
After goalkeeper Baah made a save, handing Edward Sarpong a chance to win it for the Black Meteors.
However, his effort probably hit an actual meteor, as he fired it well over the bar. Emmanuel Cudjoe also missed his effort, handing the South Africans the final Olympics spot.
The Meteors will now miss their fourth straight Olympics tournament, having failed to qualify for Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
Watch the highlights of the match below:
Once Egypt had beaten South Africa rather convincingly, one Olympics spot remained and the South Africans were all that stood between Ghana and a place in Tokyo.
Surely the Black Meteors could beat a side that had been humbled by the hosts and had only scored one goal all tournament.
The players and manager were saying the right things and yet again hopes were high.
Those hopes were dented when South Africa took the lead through a fortuitous own goal.
Evans Mensah equalised, and after the South Africans found another goal, Samuel Obeng levelled again.
With the game ending 2-2 yet again, the Meteors had to face a penalty shootout yet again.
Having been full of hope and expectations prior to the tournament, the players and technical team will return to Ghana this weekend empty-handed, dreading these two missed (pun intended) opportunities.
