Time to break Brazil jinx
Time to break Brazil jinx
Posted: 2009-10-16 07:35
If you wanted a time to have a smooth drive through the streets of Accra this Friday, do it any time between 18h00-20h00 local time.
You are guaranteed the stressful traffic won’t be there, that the irritating horn happy cabbies won’t be on the street. Everyone who loves their football, and there are many here will be behind a TV set as a nation hopes that failure after failure against Brazil and South American teams is ended once and for all.
Ghana’s Fifa Under-20 World Cup Final game against Brazil will not ignite national passion in the same manner that the senior World Cup in Germany did or the outpouring of patriotism that the 2008 Nations Cup inspired.
But still there will be many here deeply engrossed in the game and keen for the Black Satellites to add another first to Ghana’s football honours.
But the fear of losing to Brazil and a South American team is evident in the phone-ins and the status updates on social networking sites.
And there is a strong history behind that. In 1993, it took a late Brazil show to deny Ghana the World U-20 title in Australia after Emmanuel Duah had headed past Dida after only 15 minutes. The Brazilians broke Ghanaian hearts with two late goals, the winner coming in the 88th minute.
Four years later, it took a Marcello Zalayete golden goal to deny Ghana a meeting against Argentina in the final in Kuala Lumpur as Uruguay went on to face their South American neighbours.
In 2001 when Ghana made the Final a second time, it took a Javier Saviola inspired Argentina to deny the Black Satellites victory.
So the hope is that on Friday evening it will be a story of third time lucky for Ghana. And a lot of that hope is derived from strike force who have scored between then twelve goals in six games.
The defending though has been suspect and the return of five goals conceded in the last three games of the knockout stage has not given many people here confidence.
But as Sellas Tetteh has been saying throughout the tournament, the most important thing is their games they have always outscored the opponent.
If they do same against Brazil as the class of 2001 did in the quarterfinals with a John Mensah headed winner in extra time, then the party will be huge in Accra and beyond.
Having watched the tears flow twice there is a real sense that the time is just about right to break the South American jinx and provide further evidence of Africa’s growing status in world football.
: 2009-10-16 07:50
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