WORLD CUP 2006
Ghana
Introduction
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Ghana are at long last heading for their first World Cup having been in a pre-eminent position in African football for many years. The Black Stars were the first country to win the Nations Cup four times, and it has long been an anomaly that they had never appeared on the world stage at senior level.
But while that is now to be righted, the team’s reliance on the midfield trio of captain Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari was cruelly exposed earlier this year at the Nations Cup finals in Egypt, when the team exited at the group stage following a shock 2-1 defeat by Zimbabwe.
Muntari and Essien missed the tournament though injury, although the latter’s did not appear 100 per cent genuine, for which he attracted stinging criticism. Appiah, meanwhile, gamely struggled through the tournament with an ankle problem.
In other departments, notably attack, Ghana have been far from convincing and have spent the time since January seeking alternatives to bolster their squad. Serb coach Ratomir Dujkovic has been forced to arrange friendlies against European club sides to test out potential candidates within a month of the World Cup kick-off. Apart from the main midfield trio, only Samuel Osei Kuffour in defence and striker Matthew Amoah look certain to be in the starting line-up, and that is presuming the latter gets over his injury problems.
For Dujkovic, this year’s travails have been in marked contrast to the achievements of 2005, when he engineered a miraculous comeback in the World Cup qualifiers. Ghana were trailing group leaders South Africa by three points with three matches to go but beat their rivals 2-0 in Johannesburg last June to take the whip hand.
It was a convincing turnaround by the Black Stars, who went through four coaches during the campaign and myriad team selections.
They began the qualifiers under Ralf Zumdick, but he was due to return to his native Germany to become assistant at Hamburg at the end of 2003. His replacement, Mariano Barretto, lasted nine months until tempted away by club side Maritimo in his native Portugal. Sam Arday was caretaker for one game before Dujkovic’s arrival. Under the Serb, Ghana were undefeated in their 2005 qualifiers, clinching their finals place in October.
Ghana are among Africa’s oldest footballing powers, having been one of the first post-independence countries to join FIFA. They won the Nations Cup twice in the 1960s under Charles “CK” Gyamfi, who was an early African star in European football when playing in Germany just before the launch of the Bundesliga. Ghana won again, on home soil, in 1978, and in 1982 in Libya, when a 17-year-old Abedi Pele was in the line-up.
Ghana have also been successful in FIFA’s youth competitions, though two past successes at Under-17 level have been tainted by subsequent revelations of age cheating. Now they get their chance on the world stage at senior level, but their inexperience and over-reliance on a few key players may cost them dear.
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