FIFA World Cup 2010: Ghana eye Uruguay in Quarter-final
They remain the only hope of a continent, desperate to get its name on the World Cup trophy as it hosts the mega sporting event for the first time in its history.
For the people of Africa, Ghana’s Black stars are the lone survivors amongst six nations that started the World Cup yet faded away one by one to limp performances that enraged the soccer mad people of the world’s poorest continent.
Africa remains torn apart by poverty and communal riots, yet the football spectacle has done a lot to promote another side of the continent which is hospitable and has a deep sense of culture and tradition.
However they have not been able to deliver much on the soccer pitch, and fancied teams like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and hosts South Africa all bowed out of the competition in the opening round.
South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in fact became the first host nation to crash out in the first round of the tournament, despite their historic win over 1998 winners France who were the most abysmal team amongst the favourites. France too bowed out in the opening round with one of the limpest ever performances in their world cup history.
On the other hand, Ghana has proved to the world that they are no pushovers and possess determination to topple the very best in the business.
Their squad trained on Monday for their quarter-final match against, South Americans Uruguay, set to take place on Friday at the premier venue for the tournament, Johannesburg’s Soccer City.
The Black Stars had an injury scare, that they were lucky to overcome as striker Asamoah Gyan, who scored the winner against USA in extra time last week injured his foot yet was keyed up for the encounter.
"Oh man," he said. "I just felt a knock so it's a bit swollen, but I don't think it's so serious. By Friday I will be ready", the striker said at the end of the session at Mogwase stadium.
Besides Gyan, there were other absentees in the camp including another goal-scorer against the USA Kevin-Prince Boateng and John Mensah.
Boateng’s brother is playing for Germany and the two bothers can clash once again after their opening round match, if the two teams get past Uruguay and Argentina respectively in the quarter-finals.
But for the time being though, the focus remains on Uruguay who has proved to be a tough nut to crack in the tournament thus far.
"They are a good side", said Sulley Muntari after the training session, he added. "We are not going to under-rate them; we are just going to play our football to try our best to win”.
The Black Stars have the prayers and wishes of an entire continent, yet it also means extra burden on them.
Despite the pressure they remain confident of toppling the high flying South Americans, who won their pre-quarter-final convincingly with their strike force led by Forlan in full force.
"Sure we are so happy for this qualification", said Gyan, he added that it was extremely important for his country and the whole of Africa.
The striker was bullish about his team’s chances saying that the team was a lot more determined than the team that made it to the last 16 in Germany four years ago, yet crashed out at that stage of the tournament.
Goalkeeper Richard Kingson was thankful to the Africans for their unflinching support, but added that they would be needing more support than ever against their South American rivals
"Many countries are here to support Africa, so I hope on Friday we'll get an advantage from the supporters", he said.
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