Reports
of player’ revolt against the team’s coach and management have been denied by
the Ghana Football Association but public commentary and debates point to a
team which is not united to take on Germany in the 2nd Group G match
in Fortaleza on Saturday.
Some
of the Black Stars’ senior players are alleged to have threatened to leave camp
in protest of the selection policy of coach Kwasi Appiah in the USA game.
But
GFA spokesperson, Ibrahim Saanie Daara, has dismissed the allegations as
untrue.
Throughout
the week, Ghana’s 25 million population has been reviewing the match between
Ghana and the USA – whilst some questioned the coach’s selection criteria and
tactics leading to the loss, others believe Ghana was just not lucky on the
day.
Coach Kwesi Appiah is however confident his team would bounce back better to stage a formidable game against
Germany, who are three times winners of the World Cup.
According
to him, the team “will get better in our coming games and make sure that we
qualify…It is not going to be easy but we will work hard at it.”
Ghana
needs to maximize all three points against Germany if the Black Stars are to
keep alive hopes of qualifying from the group stages of the tournament.
Sports
analyst, Dr. Danny Owusu Ansah, says Ghana should not panic because “it is not
the first time we are meeting a giant at the World Cup and we should be able to
hold them [Germans] at least in the first 15minutes and then we settle with
them and play.”
He
attributes Ghana’s loss to the US to “creativity upfront” hoping this will
improve if “the coach is careful by studying the opponents before embarking on
any strategy before any match.”
Ghana’s
Midfielder, Michael Essien, who suffered a toe injury, is expected to pass a
fitness test to be available for the game. It is however unclear if defender
Rashid Sumaila, who is also responding to a toe injury, could make it to the
starting lineup.
A major attraction of Saturday’s match is the
possible clash between Germany’s Jerome Boateng and his half-brother, Kevin-Prince Boateng of Ghana.
The siblings, both born in Berlin to separate
mothers, set a record in South
Africa as the first brothers to play against each other at a World Cup finals.
In that game in Johannesburg, Germany won by a lone
goal over Ghana but both sides proceeded to the knock out stage.
On Saturday, the Germans would be seeking to
maintain their lead in the group after thrashing Portugal 4:0 in their opening
match.
There
is some level of skeptism among Ghanaians on the possibility of winning against
Germany.
The
usual World Cup euphoria is virtually absent on the streets of cities in Ghana.
Some traders in Black Starts paraphernalia are reporting drop in sales and
other businesses are worried of decline in patronage should the Ghanaian team
suffer yet another defeat.
Dr.
Owusu Ansah is however optimistic of a good score line in favour of the Black
Stars.
“It
is not the first time Germany is going to lose against a mino and so I believe that
fans should be optimistic; we shouldn’t expect too much from the team though, because
other big teams have lost and they are out of the competition. I still think
the Black Stars can shine,” he expressed.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
Originally
commissioned by Folha de
S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper.
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