From: Otchere Darko.

As I write this well-wishing, Ivory Coast, yet to play its third match in the Group Games, is theoretically still hoping to qualify, though the chances of our closest African neighbour qualifying and joining Ghana to become the second African country to reach the last 16 is very close to zero. Ivory Coast will need to beat North Korea by about 8 or more goals difference to overtake Portugal who are very likely to be beaten by Brazil in their third match of the Group Games. This, most probably, leaves Ghana as the only African country to reach the Knock-out Stage of the competition. This is why I started by saying, through the title of this article, that the whole of Africa is wishing Ghana well.

This wholesale African backing, in itself, will have both positive and negative effect on the Black Stars. On the negative side, the huge pressure resulting from Ghana being the only hope of Africa can be nerve-racking and taunting. On the positive side, the realisation that the entire continent of Africa will be supporting Ghana and wishing her well will be a morale-boosting feeling for the Ghanaian team and a major source of inspiration.

Ghana can indeed go as far as any of the other 15 countries can go.......including Brazil, Argentina and Spain. After beating Australia by 4 goals in the first of their Group matches, Germany which struggled during the European qualifying stages became seen as one of the fancied countries to win the tournament. This notwithstanding, the Ghanaians did match them squally in the last of the Group Games and came closer to scoring more goals than their more fancied European counterparts. Germany ultimately beat Ghana because of our inability to score goals from the chances we got. Throughout the entire Group stage of this competition, our biggest handicap has been our inability to connect chances into goals. This weakness is what our Coach and his Assistant should work on before our next match with United States on Saturday and after, [if we beat America to move to the last 8 countries].

United States is a smaller football nation than England, therefore, it was better that Ghana was beaten by Germany to put us in the runners-up position which leaves us to face USA, rather than face England. Having said this, one must recognise that America plays with a 12th [unseen] player who is in the person of “the American spirit” that manifests itself on the field of play as the “special American determination” that is always associated with what has become the proverbial “American dream”. For Ghana to beat America, therefore, the Black Stars should dream their own “African Dream”, craftily wrapped by the “so-called” “noisy vouvouzelas” that are continuously, [in repetitive and hyperbolic onomatopoeia], buzzing like angry bees guarding their precious honey, or like hungry flies busily feasting on “throw-aways” from a busy slaughter house.

For our “African dream” to translate into substance and glory, *firstly, the Black Stars must change their playing pattern from defensive approach to offensive approach, without leaving the defence completely weakened. *Our boys must, secondly, stop moving backwards all the time, away from an opponent coming with the ball. By moving backwards, instead of meeting the opponent, they help the attacking opponent to move closer to our penalty zone and be within a shorter shooting distance from the goal posts. By drawing backwards and allowing the opponent to move the ball into the penalty zone before meeting him, our boys also risk creating penalty chances for the opponent, should they mistakenly foul their opponents. These backward movements of our defence players were particularly prevalent more on the right flanks than on the left in our last game, though generally our boys were guilty of this bad defensive tactics in all our three matches played.

*The Coach and his Assistant should, also, have more talks with Paintsil and Kwadwo Asamoah who seemed weak in their positions in our last match. Asamoah Gyan can be really good some times, while being very awful at other times. He too needs to be advised to be more composed, more forceful and chase balls......without waiting for balls to come to him before playing them. *Our boys, again, should learn to confront their attacking opponents in pairs or multiples, rather than in singles which makes it easier for them to be drivelled and outmanoeuvred by their opponents. *Lastly, if our Coach has the North Korea-Brazil match that ended in a 2-1 win for Brazil, it would be helpful if he could show it to our boys. North Korea played one of the best international matches to watch, with both a uniquely tight defence that could only be broken through by an indomitable side like Brazil and similarly uniquely fast attacking players who could break through the defence of any good team to cause it numerous dangers.

WE ALL PRAY FERVENTLY FOR THE BLACK STARS.....which is the only best thing we can do, while hoping that they, the players, in turn, will do their utmost best to lift high the flag of Ghana and bring glory to our country and Africa on Saturday and after.

BY: OTCHERE DARKO (Written and posted on Wednesday, 23rd June 2010)