Ghana was the first African nation to qualify for Africa's World Cup, which led to joyous celebrations in the country. They carried the African flag alone to the knockout stage in the last World Cup as well. The Black Stars achieved it in style, qualifying with two more matches to go, having scored seven goals without conceding any, but there were difficulties along the way. Claude le Roy refused to continue coaching the Black Stars just after the 2008 African Cup of Nations which caused problems for the West African side. Stephen Appiah and Matthew Amoah had sat out almost a year because of injury; they had been the live wire through which Ghana qualified for the first time for the World Cup in Germany in 2006..
The Stars were just recovering from their inability to host and win the 2008 African Cup of Nations when they were hit with the news of le Roy's departure, which happened after he had been offered a new contract. Sellas Tetteh was handed the coaching job on a temporary basis.
The qualifiers were in two stages with the preliminary round and the main qualifying stage. Ghana was the top seed for Group Five in the first stage alongside the Greens of Libya, Azingo Nationals of Gabon and The Crocodiles of Lesotho. On June 1st 2008, the hopeful Black Stars started the long journey in Kumasi when they hosted Libya at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium; they won 3-0, courtesy of Prince Tagoe, Junior Agogo and Laryea Kingston. A week later, they beat Lesotho in Bloemfentin, South Africa; the scoreline was 3-2 thanks to late goals by Kingston and Agogo. Gabon inflicted their first defeat 2-0 on 14th June, 2008 in Librevielle.
They corrected their mistakes, especially complacency, beating Gabon 2-0 in Accra with goals from Tagoe and Sulley Muntari which brought Ghana back to the top of the group. With Gabon on their trail the Black Stars needed to confirm their superiority when they travelled to Libya but the Greens also had a great chance of qualifying if they could beat Ghana so that made the match a crucial one for both countries with Gabon interested in the outcome as well. That game was the first major assignment for the new Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac and it also marked the return of el Capitano Extraordinaire Stephen Appiah after his long injury lay-off. Unfortunately the Black Stars lost concentration against Libya in the 84th minute when Ahmad Saad pounced on a loose ball to shoot past Richard Kingston. Ghanaian supporters' delight at Appiah's return was soured by a serious injury to 'the Bison' Michael Essien that sidelined him for five months.
Ghana then had to host Lesotho in Sekondi on 11th October 2008 to decide the group, a game that marked the return of Matthew Amoah. He crowned his comeback with a goal in the 67th minute but Muntari had previously fired the Stars into the lead after 19 minutes, which was followed by a thunderbolt by Agogo in the 24th minute. The match ended 3-0 in favour of Ghana and Rajevac got the pat on the back for helping the team qualify for the next round;
SECOND STAGE OF QUALIFIERS
Ghana was pitted against the Eagles of Mali, the Nile Crocodiles of Sudan and the Squirrels of Benin in the next stage. Mali was seen as the biggest threat as they also had players performing at the highest level in Europe. Real Madrid's Mahamadou Diarra and Seidu Keita of Barcelona, join Juventus' Mohammed Sissoko and Frédéric Kanouté of Sevilla as their best players. They can also match the quality of Essien: Muntari and Appiah and their top striker Kanouté is more prolific than anyone other than Amoah.
The often under-estimated Benin had to be treated with respect. Razak Omotoyossi, Stephan Sessgeyon and Mouritala Ogunbiyi are all experienced players who can just spoil your party at any time. They had also proved their worth during a four-nation tournament in November 2007 when they played the Black Stars in the final, which Ghana struggled to win 4-2. In the 2008 African Cup of Nations they were drawn in the group of death with Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Mali. They lost badly with their late coach Reinhard Fabisach making more headlines for claiming that his team had been approached to throw a match than Benin did for the football, but they have made great progress since then.
Sudan were the underdogs of the group, having a young team, lacking experience, despite qualifying for the last African Cup of Nations, losing 3-0 to Cameroon, Zambia and eventual champions Egypt. They had a team which is predominantly made up from players in the Sudanese league, which makes training camps and get together easier to organise, compared to the others who had their stars abroad. Cohesion and team spirit is stronger and they can upset any of the big teams on their day.
Benin were the first to test the strength of the Black Stars on 29th March, 2009 at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium. I had returned from Accra where I covered Togo's World Cup Qualifier against Cameroon and was very worn out though I had to also cover Ghana's match. The mere hope of starting the 2010 World Cup Campaign on a good note motivated me to quickly rush to the stadium to see how our Black Stars would play Benin. It was the first time in so many months that we had all our players available, including the returnees from injury, Essien and Asamoah Gyan. Other young players like Kwadwo Asamoah of Udinese, FC Basel's Samuel Inkoom and Opoku Agyemang of Al Saad of the Qatar Stars League were also called up for the senior national team.
As usual, the stadium was packed to capacity with high hopes of a big win, but that never happened. Tagoe connected with a cross by Muntari to score the only goal. The Squirrels dominated most of the game, but could not score. Their maestro, Sessgeyon, controlled the midfield despite the presence of Appiah, Essien and Muntari. There was strong criticism of the performance and those held responsible for the poor showing. Rajevac gathered his charges for the following match, but without Appiah, who opted out due to personal reasons. There were rumours that it was because of his inability to secure a club and his poor performance in the match against Benin. Muntari also opted out due to injury and again some thought that it was due to the aftermath of the Benin game, so Asamoah and Agyemang got their chance. They beat the Lions 2-0 in Bamako courtesy Amoah and Asamoah. John Paintsil was also suspended for the next match against Sudan, which they won 2-0 thanks to Amoah's brace.
With nine points in the bag, five goals scored and none conceded, football pundits who wrote off the Black Stars started rewriting their stories as they realised that the Ghanaians were in a pole position to make Africa proud just as they did in Germany three years earlier.Ghana was set to qualify for South Africa if they beat Sudan and Mali and Benin drew. On 6th September 2009 anxiety gripped the whole country as Ghana was poised to become the first African nation to qualify for the World Cup in 2010 and the match between Mali and Benin was scheduled for two hours earlier. When the Black Stars were leaving the dressing room for warm up before the game against Sudan, Mamadou Samassa had put the Malians ahead in the 72nd minute, so it looked like Ghana's dream was not going to materialise that day,
Meanwhile, the Black Stars had to concentrate on their own match against Sudan. Muntari scored after fourteen minutes and the whole of Accra's Ohene Djan Stadium roared when the match in Cotonou ended all square with an equalizer from Mohammed Aoudou scored in the 87th minute. Essien put the icing on the cake with a thunderbolt in the 53rd minute to ensure the dream came true. Ghana topped the group with twelve points: seven goals, no defeats and no goal conceded and the significant thing was we still had two matches to go. The Black Stars had become the first African team to qualify for Africa's World Cup. Ghana's vice president John Mahama, who had been the guest of honour joined in the celebrations, which were muted compared to the scenes that greeted Ghana's qualification for their first World Cup in 2005. It had been a hard road to South Africa as there were disputes over bonuses as well as poor performances and criticism from fans and media that had taken their toll.
Now the dust has settled on Ghana's World Cup qualification, can they live up to expectations and reach the last four at least. They were the only African team to reach the knockout stage of the last World Cup, losing 3-0 to Brazil in the last sixteen. Profligate finishing cost them dear in that campaign and in the African Cup of Nations that they hosted almost two years ago. Rajevac will have to find a solution to that problem if the Black Stars are to stun the world in South Africa. Ghana has not won any major trophy since 1982 when they lifted the African Cup of Nations in Libya - the last of the great Charles Kumi Gyamfi's three successes. The Ghanaian legend remains the greatest coach Africa ever produced. Having failed to host and win the ACN last year, can they write a different story in Angola 2010 which happens before the World Cup? If so then write off the Black Stars in South Africa at your peril. |
