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| That it may come true |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jan-06 GNA |
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IN 1963 when the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and chairman of what used to be the Ghana Football Federation, the late Kojo Botsio, said the World Cup will come to Africa at the opening ceremony of the Fourth Africa Cup of Nations in Accra, very few took him serious.
None or even few bothered to consider whether he meant the trophy itself will be won by an African country or the tournament will be held in Africa.
Whatever it is, 43 years later his prediction, in one form, has come true; an African country has won the bid to stage the World Cup tournament.
For Ghana, by virtue of being the only African country to have made it to the 1/16th stage of the last World Cup in Germany, much would be expected if the other interpretation of Mr. Botsio’s prediction would ever come to pass.
A first step to get this prediction to come true is the preparations towards the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations here.
As the host nation, Ghana finds herself in a tricky situation of not having to take part in the qualifying series and therefore would be spared the pangs of the qualifiers.
This will definitely blunt the competitive edge of the Black Stars which in turn could affect their combativeness during the tornament.
In the absence of the qualifiers, a series of friendlies have been arranged for the team which though would not be a perfect substitute for the qualifiers, could well be useful.
Nonetheless, it is what Stars’ coach Claude Le Roy would make of this arrangement that could determine how well they perform in 2008
Already, he has named an all locally-based Black Stars, an action worth commending since only few coaches, especially the expatriates have been able to do that.
However, it is how he combines his present squad of foreign-based Black Stars to that of the newly formed locally-based ones that would determine the success or otherwise of the march to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Le Roy must not only shepherd the Black Stars successfully through the pre-2008 friendlies; he must also ensure an impressive turnout at the competition itself.
In pursuit of that, there is a third category of players that he may want to consider in his build-up–– players with Ghanaian parentage playing in Europe who are not bench-warmers.
He has already targeted Belgium-based Ibrahim Salou and tested U.K. - based Junior Agogo with other names like Reading-bound Antwi Bossman and AFC Wimbledon’s Roscoe Dsane coming up too.
In his search for the best combination, he has his work cut for him, because it is an open secret that one weakness of the Black Stars is their lack of striking potency — they are yet to get a striker who is consistent at goal scoring.
In other words, most of Le Roy’s efforts should be geared towards identifying strikers who can be relied on to deliver.
The bottomline is that Ghana’s preparations in 2007 should dove-tail into both the CAN 2008 and 2010 World Cup qualifiers and finals.
To do well in the pre-CAN 2008 friendlies only to flunk at the tournament itself would be a disappointment.
Similarly, to do well in the CAN 2008 only to mess up at 2010 World Cup qualifiers would also just be too bad.
That is why Le Roy and his charges should consider their mission for successful CAN 2008 and therefore the 2010 World Cup an opportunity to ensure that the ex-foreign minister’s prediction comes true in its entirety.
2007 is therefore the beginning of that mission and all eyes would be glued to the trail of the Stars.
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