2010 World Cup: Ghanaian pundits predicting a spectacular win against Australians
The Ghanaian skipper Stephen Appiah has claimed that the he and his team will enter the arena against the Australians as favourites. He said that his team was in prime condition to proceed from the Group stages into the next round.
While talking to media the captain of the Black Stars said that his team had trained tirelessly for the match and was eager for the clash against the Socceroos. The former Juventus player stated, “We stand a very good chance”, adding on the behalf of his team, “We are in a very good position and we are all very excited about it”.
He explained that in no way were they underestimating the Australian team and knows that they have brilliant players like Tim Cahill and Craig Moore. Still the Black Stars are in no way lagging behind them in any department. The Bologna midfielder clarified, "We respect Australia: they are a very good side even though they got beaten by such a wide margin by Germany. But we will go there and do our best”.
So far Ghana is the only African nation to have acquired three points by a victory in an opening game. They defeated Serbia 1-0 and now have their next encounter against Australia at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg.
Back home fans have a firm believe unlike those of England and France that their stars are going to progress in to the next stages with a win. Future predictors and pundits are a common sight in the country and there are a surprisingly large number of people in Ghana that follow their predictions.
Despite that Australia has better players on average in comparison to Ghana. Ghana still has the edge over them. They work beautifully as a team and have a pragmatic and clear approach in the midfield.
Experts have related that their money would be on the four-time African champions. They seem to be set for a good performance against the Socceroos. Though history favours the Australians, and despite then having a well paced game, the prudent approach of Black Stars is bound to spellbind them.
The key for Ghana will be their midfield. If they are able to maintain possession and launch successful offensive assaults in the first half then they would have the crowd support and tempo advantage to help them.
The Australians will be well prepared for the battle too. Their 4-0 humiliation against Germany would have been enough to give them a wakeup call.
Peter Tim Verbeek the Australian team’s coach has accepted that there was a flaw in his strategy against Germany and he and his team are rejuvenating for the title race. The Dutch said that he was also opting for a couple of new entries in the lineup but the decision will be taken at the last moment according to the match situation.
The important thing for Ghana would be to take advantage of Tim Cahill’s absence from the midfield. Cahill is the inspiration in the team and his presence will be felt. Despite being probably the oldest team in the World Cup this year, the Australians have a surprising number of world class players in their squad.
The Ghanaians have a lesser number of world recognized players in their team however their performance in Africa has been astonishing to say the least. In May they received information that their key player and captain Michael Essien, Chelsea, will unable to participate in the World Cup due to lack slow recovery of his knee injury. Even without the star they have managed to give an astounding performance in respect to their quality.
If Ghana progress with their current combination of inspiration and class they are bound to proceed into the next stages of the tournament.
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