Stars can ride ‘group of death’
Stars can ride ‘group of death’
Posted: 2009-11-21 10:35
Ghana's resolve to win their first Africa Cup of Nations since 1982 will be given the sternest test in the group stages after the draw for the tournament pitted the Black Stars against three of its neighbours.
Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso will provide the opposition in the opening week of the tournament and while it will not have killed the belief of the players that 2010 could be their year, it certainly will remind them it will be a bumpy ride from the start.
Take Ivory Coast for instance. They have easily the best collection of players on the continent, a midfield brimming with quality and a striker in Didier Drogba who has shown he can win games on his own, something Ghana hasn't got.
Nigeria coach Shuaibu Amodu said their meeting against Ghana will be a 'classic indeed' and the history Nations Cup meetings between the two backs that assessment.
In 1992, the Ivorians won the longest penalty shootout in the tournament against Ghana to clinch their first title. In 1994 they took Ghana out in the quarter final stage in Tunisia but the Black Stars have won the last two meetings. First there was a 2-0 victory achieved with goals from Abedi Pele and Tony Yeboah at South Africa 1996. And then the Stars came from behind a year ago to win their third place play off at Ghana 2008 4-2.
Togo may have been to the World Cup before but they have yet to emerge from the group stage of the Nations Cup before. In 1998 they beat Ghana to hasten the departure of the Black Stars at the group stage at a time many were touting them as favourites. In Angola, their main threat will come inevitably from Emmanuel Adebayor.
Burkina Faso gave Ghana the most difficult games in the build up to the 2006 world cup and were the only side to beat the Black Stars in qualifiers.
All three teams will pose their own threats to Ghana's ambitions but no matter how good the Ivory Coast is, no matter how unpredictable Togo can be and regardless of how well the Burkinabes can combine physical strength with skill, the Black Stars can and must emerge from that group after the group stage because player for player they are not inferior neither are they as a team.
Those games will be thrilling and tense affairs. They will be games between teams with very similar styles, between players who know themselves well, some of whom speak common local dialects and games between some of the best players on the continent.
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