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A to Z of WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2010 - Ghana
GHANA
There are some who feel that the World Cup Finals in South Africa this June will be a tournament too soon for Ghana. Theirs is a team brimful of youthful but still maturing talent. In the FIFA U20 World Cup, held in Egypt in 2009, Ghana emerged triumphant, beating Brazil 4-3 on penalties (0-0 aet). In so doing they became the first African Nation to win this prestigious trophy. 2010 will be only their second appearance in the senior World Cup event. Ghana’s only other showing in the Finals was in 2006. They came second in their group behind eventual winners Italy, and were eliminated at the next stage 3-0 by Brazil. Of the 32 nations who took part in that tournament, Ghana were ranked 13th best nation. In Angola recently they reached the Final of the African Cup of Nations only to be beaten by a late goal from Egypt’s Ahmed Mohamed Hassan El Saka.
The current squad is coached by the Serbian Milovan Rajevac who took on the post in August 2008. His captain, Stephen Appiah, might stir the memories of Spurs supporters because he had a trial at White Hart Lane in January 2009. A ‘box-to-box’ midfielder, he has been plagued by knee injury worries and so was not offered a contract by Tottenham. He now plies his trade in Serie A for Bologna. As to the rest of the squad, the undoubted star is Chelsea’s Michael Essien – a real powerhouse of a player at both club and national level. That he missed the bulk of the recent African Cup of Nations through injury serves only to highlight the National Team’s achievement in reaching the Final of that competition. A degree of uncertainty still surrounds his availability for the South Africa Finals in June. If he fails to recover in time, much will rest on the shoulders of Inter Milan’s Sulley Muntari and Fulham’s John Paintsil. The goalkeeper Robert Kingston (Wigan) was one of the very few African goalies to impress in the Angola tournament. The team lacks a proven goalscorer, though the future lies very much with 20 year old Dominic Adiyiah of Milan who won both the Golden Ball and the Golden Shoe ( 8 goals ) awards in the 2009 U20 World Cup. No doubt his time will come but perhaps not this June.
Ghana, With a FIFA ranking of 37, have been drawn in the same group as Australia, Serbia and Germany. With the Germans strong favourites to win this Group, you can get 5/1 on Ghana doing so from Paddy Power. A more pessimistic view can be had from Blue Square who are offering 4/5 on their not making the last 16. And finally Betfred see Ghana’s elimination in the quarter-finals at 15/2. The ‘Black Stars’ may indeed shine but perhaps not yet.
Posted: Monday, February 15th, 2010 @ 07:02 pm by Mark
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