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World Cup Morning Report – Africa rejoices as Ghanaians achieve quarter-final berth
Ghana is most certainly the team of the moment, and it is the Ghanaians who are taking it upon themselves to keep the whole of Africa partying for as long as they possibly can. Having been the sole African side to have launched themselves through the group stage thanks mainly to an organised and determined rearguard and two penalties due to handballs, they have now gone one better and surged impressively into the quarter-finals after their triumph over the United States last night. The win is also a further feather in the cap of African football as a whole.
Ghana, as they did four years ago in Germany when they were the only African team to reach the last-16, have yet again proved themselves to be the best the continent has to offer when it comes to football. They are now the third African team in history who can say they have been World Cup quarter-finalists, following in the coveted footsteps of Cameroon and Senegal, who reached the last eight in 1990 and 2002 respectively.
The game against the USA could easily have gone either way once extra time was summoned upon for the first time in 2010’s biggest sporting extravaganza, but the industry, determination and naked desire of their team to win at all costs meant it was the fans from Ghana, and no doubt plenty of South Africans who have now taken to cheering on their African comrades, who were dancing, singing, yelling and caterwauling gloriously into the night in celebration of the county’s most gleaming achievement to date. African success looked as though it would be dishearteningly hard to come by during the group stage, as Nigeria, Cameroon and Algeria found things tough, but this marvellous feat from the almost outrageously intrepid Black Stars, who have one of the youngest squads at the tournament, has certainly made this inaugural African World Cup worth it for so many people. The competition needed this success, and now it has tasted what it is like, it thrives for more.
The Black Stars will now face up to Uruguay in the next round, and although the Uruguayans have a very well-drilled outfit and possess two of the competition’s most feared strikers in Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan, it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that they could defeat them. After all, they managed to stifle Germany’s attacking threat in their group game, and it only took a dream strike from Mesut Özil to decide the match in the Germans’ favour. They will also have a massive advantage in the crowd. Yesterday evening the Ghana fans were absolutely indomitable. Decorated in the red, yellow and green of the Ghana flag, dancing, screeching and blowing indefatigably on their vuvuzelas, the support for the Ghanaian team was simply admirable and outstanding. Surely it will become even more rambunctiously sparkling when their boys take on the challenge of Uruguay on 2 July. If it does, and Ghana can overcome that South American challenge, we must be prepared for an explosion the World Cup has rarely experienced. Success is of course relative, and if Ghana were to find themselves in a semi-final of a World Cup, on African soil, the emotions of everybody involved would surely be indescribable. Neutrals all around the world will be hoping it happens almost as much as Africa.
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