Do or die for Ghana

Ghana once dominated African football at senior national team level, reaching six Nations Cup finals and winning four.

The recipe for success was an endless supply of players blessed with flair and discipline whose strengths were used to maximum effect by a succession of shrewd home-grown coaches.

But times have changed and the Black Stars no longer trigger terror among rivals, a fact illustrated by a 1-0 loss in Uganda last month when the qualifying competition for the 2004 African Nations Cup began.

At the 35,000-capacity National Stadium in Accra on Sunday, Ghana host humble Rwanda knowing only a victory will suffice as they strive to get back into contention for Group 13 honours.

Just the winners of the three-nation pool advance to the 16-team finals tournament in Tunisia so the margin for error is minuscule, especially when playing at home.

After the one-match reign of Yugoslav coach Milan Zivadinovic, who quit within days of the loss to Uganda citing lack of support from officials, Ghana have turned to Emmanuel Afranie.

He has been in charge of the Black Stars before, although his greatest impact came with under-age teams, notably the 1991 world championship-winning junior squad.

Afranie intends no disrespect to Rwanda or Uganda when he says internal problems may pose the greatest threat to his mission of lifting the Stars to former heights.

The best current Ghanaian footballer, Bayern Munich defender Samuel Kuffour, rarely wears the gold and black strip due to clashes with officialdom and was booted out of camp at the 2002 Nations Cup tournament in Mali.

Kuffour was accused of being a bad influence on his team-mates by coach Fred Osam-Duodo, another member of the old school of coaches that once ruled supreme.

"Most of the national players have worked with me at some stage and I believe this will be a major advantage as we try to build a winning team," Afranie says.

Tradition certainly points to Ghana succeeding with a few goals to spare as the Black Stars have won 13 consecutive qualifiers dating back 13 years, scoring 32 goals while conceding just six.

Contrast that with a Rwandan record of four losses in five away qualifiers and a 2-16 goal tally and the visitors appear to be on a hiding to nothing in West Africa.

While Ghana seem set to rely on the usual assortment of locals from leading clubs Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko plus a motley mix of Europe-based professionals, Rwanda are an unknown quantity.

Less obvious is the outcome of the Group 6 encounter in Asmara tomorrow between Eritrea and Zimbabwe, the only leading African football country never to qualify for the Nations Cup.

Zimbabwe began with a creditable 1-0 home win over Mali, fourth in the 2002 finals which they hosted, while Eritrea suffered a surprise 1-0 reverse on the tiny Indian Ocean island of Seychelles.

Benjamin Mwaruwari, the striker who has taken France by storm since arriving in Auxerre via South Africa and Switzerland, will be the star attraction, although the conditions in East Africa will not be to his liking.

After Zimbabwe won a 2000 Nations Cup qualifier in Eritrea, then coach Clemens Westerhof said the pitch was so hard and bumpy even a four-wheel-drive vehicle would have difficulty negotiating it.

Only four of the top 10 nations are in action with holders Cameroon and hosts Tunisia qualifying automatically and Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and Ivory Coast receiving byes.

After forcing a heroic goalless draw in Ivory Cost, South Africa should prove too strong for Burundi at home despite the injury-induced absence of their most senior professionals, defender Lucas Radebe and striker Shaun Bartlett.

Morocco appear the 'bankers' of the 20-match programme, hosting featherweights Equatorial Guinea, who are likely to become involved in a damage limitation exercise from the kickoff.