JOHANNESBURG – Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan apologized to his country Monday for taking a break from international football but insisted he needed time away to recover from missing another crucial penalty at a major tournament.The 26-year-old Gyan, whose decision to temporarily stop playing for Ghana was announced over the weekend, told South African website supersport.com that the break would help him "come back bigger and mentally stronger.”Gyan had an early penalty saved in Ghana’s semifinal loss to eventual champion Zambia at the recent African Cup of Nations, a second key mistake from the spot by the forward after his last-second miss against Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup.That error two years ago, when his penalty hit the crossbar in the last action of regular play, denied Ghana a piece of history as the first African team to make the last four of a World Cup.The Black Stars went on to lose to Uruguay in a penalty shootout, while they went down 1-0 to the Zambians following Gyan’s miss this month."As you can imagine, it’s been very hard for me mentally to miss two important successive penalties for my country,” Gyan said. "I never fully recovered from (the) 2010 World Cup and now (the) 2012 Afcon (African Cup of Nations)."I want my country to know I love playing for them and I wouldn’t be who I am without them. So they should give me some time to get myself back together.”