Ghana: The Hope of a Continent

It's been a wild weekend in the World Cup and I figured it was time for an update.  Since my last update about Africa in the World Cup, all but one of the African teams have been shown the door. We've now moved on from the group stage of the tournament to the knockout stage where it is winner goes on and loser goes home. The only African nation to make it to the knockout portion was the Black Stars of Ghana. To add intrigue and interest, Ghana's first opponent in the knockout stage was to be the U.S. of A.

An intriguing matchup, especially as far as I was concerned for a few reasons. First, with my close ties to Africa and the fact that I lived in Ghana for 6 months, I am always backing the African teams and Ghana in particular. In fact, when Ghana defeated Brazil in penalty kicks to win the 2009 Under 20 World Cup, I had to fight back a few tears of joy. Secondly, as much as I love me American friends, I generally cheer against the U.S. sports teams, for reasons that I don't have time to get into here.  You can imagine the build up of emotions I had leading up to the game knowing it was one of my most beloved teams against the U.S. The third reason for intrigue is the fact that Ghana and the U.S. were actually in the same group in the 2006 World Cup, and it was a victory by the Ghanaian's over the U.S. that sent Ghana to the next round and sent the Americans home.

This time around, the result was thankfully the same. The game was only a few minutes old when a turnover and a brilliant solo effort by Kevin Prince Boateng gave Ghana an early lead and gave me a whole lot of hope. The Americans did fight back though and tie the game, causing me a lot of stress and frustration in the process. I'll be honest, when I have so much invested in a game I really have a hard time enjoying it. After 90 tense minutes of action, the game was still tied meaning another half hour was required. Only a few minutes into the extra period, Asamoah Gyan chested down a long ball and sent a screamer past U.S. keeper Tim Howard. It's not sudden death in extra time in soccer so Ghana had to hold on for the rest of the 30 minutes, but hold on they did. When the final whistle blew it was more relief than joy at first for me, but the joy definitely set in as the day went on. Sweet victory to be sure, and one can only imagine the state of celebration that the country of Ghana was in, and might still be in today.

Ghana is the last hope for Africa in this first ever World Cup on African soil and their next hurdle is Uruguay, who they will meet on Friday in the quarter-finals. Another winnable game for Africa's best, but not an easy opponent by any stretch. Uruguay has only conceded 1 goal so far in the tournament and has a dangerous duo up front in Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez who can put the ball in the net with the best of them. It will take Ghana's best effort so far to keep the dream alive, but I am confident they can, the question that remains though is if they will. One thing I know for sure, an entire continent will be behind them.

For those of you that care little about the actual games being played and are more interested in the status of the World Cup beard, here you go. Still not sure if the term "beard" is applicable in this situation.

Day 17