For a continent that has never gotten past the quarter final stage of any FIFA organised World Cup tournament at the senior level, Friday, June 2, 2010 was a day for the Black Stars of Ghana to make history by breaking the quarter final jinx that has been haunting Africa for many years.
Yet again, and what appeared to be the moment of glory for the African continent, the Black Stars, the only African team as of last Friday left in the one-eighth round of the tournament, failed to make history when on the stroke of 30 minutes of extra time, Asamoah Gyan failed to convert a spot-kick awarded them by the Portuguese referee.
The sight of Asamoah Gyan missing the penalty was too painful not only for Ghanaians but for the entire African continent. Indeed, many Ghanaians and Africans are still licking their wounds of that painful defeat suffered at the hands of the Uruguayans.
When the Uruguayans won the day it became obvious that all hopes of an African country annexing, for once, the World Cup trophy has been shattered. At the end of the match, this was how an ardent Ghanaian supporter summarily put it: “it is all over”.
Though the Black Stars failed to make history, it is important that we acknowledge the efforts of the twinkle twinkle little Stars. They indeed played their hearts out and gave a good account of themselves throughout the tournament. They have shown to the world that Africa is capable of winning the coveted FIFA World Cup trophy.
We at Today are very optimistic that it is only a matter of time that the world would witness an African country wining the World Cup for the first time. And that day is yet to come to fruition.
It is against this background that we congratulate the Black Stars and the technical handlers for such a sterling performance in South Africa. We had all hoped that the Black Stars made it to the semi-final stage but that did not happen.
As Ghanaians we should take consolation in the fact that South Africa 2010 was a remarkable improvement on Germany 2006, and further hope that Brazil 2014 would be better. From the way our boys are performing, it would not be a surprise should they qualify to Brazil and make it through to the Semi-finals or even to the finals.
Notwithstanding our loss to Uruguay, we must all in unison celebrate the Black Stars. They are heroes and have made us all proud. The paper seizes this opportunity to congratulate them and urges them to do better next time.
Whilst we applaud the efforts of the Black Stars, there are inherent problems in the team that need to be addressed. Whether coach Milovan Rajevac would stay or not, the coach who will be in charge of the team must work on getting more strikers for the team. We also need to strengthen our defense and vary our tactics. And most importantly we must work on penalty shooters.
In our estimation, when these areas of the team are looked at Ghana’s team will go places.