Mohammed Kudus personified West Ham United’s 2-1 Premier League win at Burnley on Saturday.
The Ghana star travelled well over 10,000 miles during the international break to represent his country in two FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the first of which ended in a last-gasp home win over Madagascar and the second of which was played on the Indian Ocean island of Comoros.
On his return, Kudus started at Turf Moor, where his afternoon took a negative turn when he conceded a penalty that Jay Rodriguez converted to put the hosts in front.
But, rather than dwell on his misfortune, the 23-year-old rose to the occasion and provided two devastating crosses in the final stages of the game to lead his side to an unlikely yet hugely satisfying victory.
“Until the last whistle goes, we’ll keep fighting until the end and Saturday you could see an example of that,” he told West Ham TV.
“I just keep my focus throughout the whole game. It’s easy to give up in games like this, especially when they have more of the ball and we are defending a lot, but we still believed and still kept doing what we do best and luckily we got the win.
“[After conceding a penalty] I knew I had to do anything to bring the team back into the game and you could see that in the last actions.”
With time running out in Lancashire, Kudus first beat three men before crossing low and hard and, as Divin Mubama challenged, Dara O’Shea put through his own net. Then, in the first minute of added time, he again worked space before swinging the ball to the far post for Tomáš Souček to volley unerringly past James Trafford.
“Like I said, I had to make something happen to I had to use my individual skills and luckily it worked,” he continued. “If there was no run there [from Divin], the defender would have easily cleared the ball so it had an effect on that. Strikers have to be there so I hoped he would get the goal, but we take the three points!
“[For the winning goal] when I come inside on second balls, we practice that a lot, and it was a good finish from Tomáš!”
West Ham’s win was their second in a row in the Premier League and fourth in five matches in all competitions, setting the Irons up for a busy period of nine games in 29 days to close out the calendar year.
“We keep improving and the points are very important, so we’ll build and focus on the next game,” Kudus concluded. “It was a good win to come back from the international break, as everybody was away in different places playing different styles with their countries, so it’s good to get back together and get that winning feeling again.”
