Black Stars of Ghana vrs USA Archives

I have never considered myself a football fan. Heck I can’t even remember the last time I sat down to watch a game of football. And no, I am not a bimbo…I just don’t like sports.

The only time you would catch me watching a football game is when Ghana is playing, and it has to be an international match. I do enjoy such games because I know the players. I know their stories. I know how they started and how far they’ve come. For most of them, it is a story of grass to grace. It resonates with me as well as a whole lot of Ghanaians.

In 2006, Ghana qualified to play in the world cup for the very first time. As a non-football fan, all I could process from that piece of information was that Ghana was going to share the stage along with other big name countries. It was a chance to for the whole world to know about this awesome tiny West African country.

We were put in a group along with Czech Republic, Germany and the USA. These countries were giants in the football world (well apart from the USA). I can never forget how Ghana’s performance at the 2006 world cup made me feel. In particular I remember the match between Ghana and the USA. That match was a make or break match for us. It was either we won, or our team would be sent back home. You see, nobody even thought Ghana would leave any mark in the games. After all, that was our very first world cup. But the Black Stars surprised everyone, including Ghanaians watching at home.

When the Black Stars line up late tonight to take on the might of the United States of America, a little bit of history which is being threatened to be overshadowed by all the brouhaha of a world cup is going to take place. For the first time in the history of Ghana, the Black Stars are going to be led by a black man on the world stage, at the senior level.

Admittedly ours is a short romance with the world cup, this just being our 3^rd tournament overall, but this does not in any way diminish the significance of the occurrence. Ghana’s first president Dr Nkrumah is amongst other things, famous for his utterance that “the black man is capable of managing his own affairs”. And after trusting in the white man to take us to our first two world cups, Kwesi Appiah was given the chance and has, rather spectacularly, led the team to the world cup in a manner more flamboyant than either of his predecessors could manage.

We have a rather unfortunate tendency in this country to dismiss the value of our own products, and this pertained to our choice of a national team coach for a long time. Which is why the exploits of Kwesi Appiah should not be glossed over, as in being successful he makes a case not only for himself, but for all local coaches and for our ability to perform just as well as the foreigner given the right conditions.

Kwesi Appiah’s initial appointment was met with incredulity and indifference by a large section of the Ghanaian public. There were those who believed a local coach was the way to go, but Kwesi Appiah himself was largely untested as a manager at the top level. Admittedly, he had been assistant coach of the Black Stars for several years prior; this did not however diminish the calls of his critics who felt he was entirely out of his depth.

An Ode to The Black Stars | The Beauty & Joy of Football

Take a Bow: ‘Local Coach’ James Kwesi Appiah to Debut on the World Stage-World Cup 2014 | ‘The Black Man is Capable Of Managing His Own Affairs’

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