Sarpong, Justice

Our elimination from the world cup had traumatized some Ghanaians, some of whom are soo out of it, they've lost their speech while others who still have their vocal chords have resorted to monday quaterbacking as usual. Asamoah Gyan, who until he missed the penalty on Friday had propelled us to the quarter final stage with his miraculous left footed goal against USA is now the goat to our fanatic soccer supporters. Gyan, hold your head high, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You did your best for your country and the nation owes you a rolodex of praises.

As usual with human nature, we are finding it hard to accept this defeat and I do understand it because of the cruel nature it happened. The refree should have awarded a goal instead of the penalty because the ball seems to have crossed the goal line or the deliberate nature Suarez handled the ball by becoming a goalkeeper should have been punished with a goal and a red card, he got his red card but we didn't get a sure bet goal. VICTORY WAS SNATCHED FROM US BY THIS URUGUAYIAN BAD BOY SUAREZ.

Having said this, let refrain from blaming any Blackstar player because they did their best and if any supporter thinks he or she is having the feeling of emptiness, guess how Asamoah Gyan and his team mates are feeling. Nobody is hurting more than these players and we should stop this blame game and rather rally around our gallant youngmen for a yeoman job they did on South Africa soccer fields.

At the time of writing this short article, more than 925 comments have been posted on "GHANA Is Out" on Ghanaweb and some players are being castigated and blamed for our defeat, that should stop. This team played as the word team is defined and lost as a team. I was really happy to see Captain John Mensah consoling Asamoah Gyan and encouraging him to hold his head high despite the missed penalty. The team itself is not pointing fingers and we the supporters should not do that either.

It was heart wrenching to see Asamoah Gyan lying prostrated on the field and crying like a baby. Who can forget the tears freely flowing from the eyes of Painstil? Some supporters are blaming some players of being selfish and making stupid decisions on the field. We should not forget that, some of these Players are in their early twenties and have to make decisions on the field within seconds and therefore mistakes were bound to happen. They made some mistakes and good decisions were mostly made by our players to go this far in the tournament.

Our Blackstars did as well as they could with the players we have having lost our most talented player in Essien and some players playing with injuries. OUR GALLANT YOUNG MEN, HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH, YOU MADE YOUR COUNTRY PROUD AND THERE IS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL FOR THIS SERVICE TO YOUR COUNTRY.

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas.