Brazil and Ghana will battle it out for the FIFA U20 World Cup crown The FIFA U20 World Cup was born on African soil in 1979 in Tunisia. Since then it has been held twice more on the continent: in Nigeria and this year Egypt. Throughout the years, Europe and South America had a headlock on the championship; no African country has ever won it. However, tomorrow, Friday 16 October, will be the first time an African team has played a final on African soil. If Ghana beat Brazil in Cairo International Stadium, it will be an unprecedented achievement and will conform to FIFA's project plan "Win Africa with Africa". Ghana beat Hungary 3-2 in an exciting semi-final on Tuesday while Brazil edged Costa Rica 1-0. Accordingly Hungary and Costa Rica will play-off for third place at 5pm, also tomorrow, while Ghana will take on Brazil at 8pm for the grand finale. With three players, including influential captain Vladimir Koman suspended and Krisztian Nemeth suffering from sickness and forced to withdraw at half time, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Hungary and so it proved against mighty Ghana. Dominic Adiyiah netted his seventh and eight goals of the tournament to give Ghana a 2-0 lead and although the Europeans reduced the deficit twice through Marco Futacs and Adam Balajti, Abeiku Quansah's goal was worthy of being the match winner. Brazil's Alan Kardec scored his fourth goal of the tournament and his third against Costa Rica as A Seleç�o squeezed past Los Ticos in the day's second semi-final. The Brazilian No 9, named after the 19th century French teacher of spiritism, ghosted in at the far post to volley home Bertucci's left wing cross. The results ensure a rematch of the 1993 final, which Brazil won 2-1 in Sydney, thanks to goals from Yan and Gian, but Ghana coach Sellas Tetteh has already declared that he perceives his side to be "hot favourites" for the game. Surprisingly a 40,000 crowd attended the semi-finals, helping increase the spectator attendance to one million, 150,000, 50,000 spectators short of the attendance record set in Canada in 2007. An awards ceremony will witness the distribution of the Fair Play trophy, commemorative medals for the referees, gold, silver and bronze medals for the top three winning teams in addition to the Adidas golden glove for the best goalkeeper, the Adidas golden, silver and bronze shoe and the Adidas golden, silver and bronze ball award. On Friday morning before the final, FIFA President Joseph Blatter will inaugurate two football projects in Cairo at the National Technical Centre of the Egyptian Football Association before holding a press conference at the Conrad Hotel at 2pm. Later in the day, Blatter will attend the 3rd/4th place match and the final at Cairo International Stadium. The two projects being inaugurated are the second part of FIFA Goal at the EFA headquarters -- the building of sports facilities in the National Technical Centre -- and the debut of a new football turf, part of FIFA's "Win in Africa with Africa" initiative. The ceremony will begin at 10am at the Football National Technical Centre, located in 6th October City in Cairo. There will be no interviews or question-and-answer opportunities there, but the media will be able to film or take pictures of the event. Blatter will make a statement regarding the projects being inaugurated. At the press conference he will be accompanied by FIFA Secretary-General Jérôme Valcke. With Friday being a day off and with the attendance of Blatter and many local and international dignitaries, Egyptians are determined to make it a full house at Cairo International Stadium. The national team's failure to progress past the round of 16 has not dampened the enthusiasm of hosting what FIFA calls the world's second most important tournament. The past week in Cairo has also seen other activities taking place alongside the competition. The FIFA staff played two friendly matches against the Local Organising Committee at the Gezira Club. It was a fair result as each side won a game. It was fun for the staff to have some time off amid the tight schedule of the last three weeks.
