The football team of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) beat their counterparts from the Ministry of Health (MOH) 8-7 on penalties to lift the special trophy of the 2008 edition of the annual match between the two institutions on Friday in Accra. The game which was played at the Race Course Turf Park in Accra tied at 1-0 until a superlative save from Health Service goalie Abdul Razak aided his side to avenge their last year’s defeat. The annual event, which forms part of the Ministry of Health’s theme of new paradigm of “Creating Wealth through Health”, was to foster unity among the two medical-oriented institutions. The Minister of Health, Major (Rtd) Courage Quashigah, who took the ceremonial kick off of the event saw the two teams who paraded staff of their various departments struggling to find the feet and rhythm in the opening part of the game. The entertaining game remained a balanced contest until the 25th minute when Health Service striker Bernard Kodie scored the first goal for his side with a thunderbolt of a shot that caught the Health Ministry goalkeeper wrong footed. The Ministry of Health resumed the second half strongly making several raids into the half of the Health Service and this yielded positive dividends later in the 82nd minute when Alfred Agyemang’s half volley around the penalty area found the net. When the penalty shootout was evoked after the final whistle, Health Service scored eight of their kicks while Ministry of Health converted seven. Madam Mavis Osae, Chief Nursing Officer presented the ultimate trophy to the captain of the GHS team, Eric Adu Danso, while their head striker Kodie was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP). The MOH last year thrashed GHS 3-0 in the maiden edition of the event. GNA