Ghanaians are very passionate about football, but have the weakest heart to accept defeats. That is their habit. Speak to any Ghanaian football fan about a game involving any of their national teams and the answer one gets suggests the legs of their opponents will be tied to a log. They simply are dismissive of their opponents.
The outcome however is that they end up with bad eggs all over their faces. Not once, not twice but on several occasions, Ghanaian football fans have seen their faith in their teams buried in disappointments. Ahead of their game against the elephants of Ivory Coast last Friday (15-01-01) in the on-going Orange Cup of Nations in Angola, soccer fans were optimistic the Black Stars will wallop the elephants. As usual, their optimism was hinged, firmly, on a similar tournament in Ghana in 2008 when Ivory Coast, then tournament favourites, were convincingly beaten by the Stars.
The two played for the third place spot and the Black Stars won by 4 goals as against the 2 scored by the Ivoirians. On the back of that historical victory, football fans condemned the Ivoirians of the Didier Drogba’s, Kolo Toure’s, Yaya Toure’s, Salomon Kalou’s and the like, ahead of the game. Ghanaians were sure the match was done and dusted. Despite the inexperience of most of the players, because a good number of them were drafted from the Under 20 level, Ghanaians were still optimistic of victory. I’m not a big fan of the stars and had even predicted they’ll lose against the elephants.
Most of my friends branded me as not being patriotic. That is their opinion and was not going to have any disagreements with them over that. After all I exercise the right to support which team I think is good. I’m not going to be led astray by this patriotism thing to support a team that has no focus and plan. Unfortunately that is what Ghanaians are deliberately trying not to accept. The team is simply a comedy of errors. Anyway back to the match against the elephants.
The news, as most of you might be away, is that the elephants humbled the walked over the Stars by thrashing them. The elephants beat them by 3 goals to 1. Even the consolation goal was via a penalty. Soon after the whistle was over, soccer fans, and which is synonymous with football fans, the blame game began. The players and their technical handlers were tongue roasted by soccer fans. I actually heard one young man cursing the goalkeeper Richard Kingson, for his poor performance.
Rather than accept that their team was not good enough and should do something about it, they rather went out and about, like children who have lost their way in a huge Shopping Mall, cursing anybody they find convenient to blame. It’s true the goalkeeper has lost his plot because for two years he’s not played in any competitive game for his club.
The truth is that Richard Kingson in not even within the reserves of his club, Wigan.
The next game is on against Burkina Faso on Tuesday and I’m more than convinced people will be calling for the head of the Serbian, Mr. Milo.
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