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I think what Ghana has lacked is the ability to maintain their shape and discipline when the stakes are really high.

In 1992 Ghana was favourite to clinch the trophy and the BlackStars who had not clicked for a decade were in great form. The BlackStars lived up to their tournament bidding as one of the favourites to win it. They had a certain Abedi Pele, the playmaker and the reigning African footballer of the year and Tony Yeboah , a renowned goal scorer determined to shine on the African Stage in their line up. Ghana was a match away from clinching the trophy in a tense match against the other tournament favourite Nigeria with a star-studded team of Rashidi Yekini, Sampson Siasia, Stephen Keshi, Augustine Eguavon, Finidi George, Victor Ikpeba etc.

Abedi was no doubt man of the match that day, having tormented the Nigerian defence the whole of the match and having equalised Nigeria’s lead in the stroke of halftime to dent the confidence of the Nigerians. Ghana then went on to score in the second half with a nicely worked goal finished by Prince Polley. The clock was ticking and the BlackStars were in control of the match only for Abedi Pele who had already received a yellow card for dangerous play to see red mist – a moment of madness which saw him snub the referee resulted in another yellow card! The BlackStars’ talisman and the player of the tournament, was not going to make the final!

The rest is history and we all know what happened in the finals. Everyone wonders whether the result would have been different had Ghana had their best player on the pitch just like the Ivorian’s had their best player Alain Gouamene in goal.

Fast forward to 2006 World Cup and our midfield general Micheal Essien was shown a double yellow card in a match with the USA in which Ghana won, but this meant Ghana had to face Brazil without our midfield engine. Brazil went on to tear Ghana’s midfield to pieces and blow Ghana away.

Then in 2008, Ghana hosted the African Cup under a “Host and Win” motto. A resurgent Ghanaian team who were coming to the tournament on the back of a very good showing at the World cup were hoping to win their first tournament in 26 years. They had had the misfortune of losing their talismanic captain in Stephen Appiah through long term injury but with Michael Essien at the helm of the BlackStars, Ghana was hoping to make a great impact on the tournament and win at home. Things had gone according to plan and Ghana had reached the quarter finals after beating the likes of Morocco and an in-form Guinea team. Once again, it was Nigeria in the quarter finals and as expected, it was a tense match especially when Nigeria had taken the lead through a penalty. Ghana equalised through Micheal Essien on the stroke of half time and things were looking good for Ghana. In the second half, Ghana dominated the game and it was clear there was only going to only one winner that day but a moment of madness from our stand-in captain John Mensah through an unnecessary tackle on a Nigerian player resulted in a straight red card. What was heart-breaking was that the ball was going out of play and the Ghanaian defence was not in any way threatened; Clearly this was unnecessary and an archetypical Ghanaian loss of concentration. This was a player in his prime, our defensive stalwart, the Black Star’s “rock of Gibraltar”! Ghana nevertheless were inspired after the incident and got a goal to seal the game though “Ga Mantse” Agogo. But exactly like 1992, Ghana was to get their comeuppance in the following match with Cameroon. This was a semi-final Ghana had to win to play Africa’s most in-form team and the defending champions Egypt. With our defensive rock sat out for the match, the BlackStars had little choice but to soak up the pressure and hope to catch the Cameroonians on the counter attack knowing their Achilles heel in the ageing Rigobert Song. The match had been fairly balanced until Cameroon exposed Ghana’s “Mensah-less” defence and scored a goal that was to take Ghana out of the competition. This behaviour didn’t end there, and at the 2010 World Cup itself Ghana had beaten the USA again in one of the most fiercely contested matches of the tournament in the last 16, only to have in my view the best player on the pitch that day (the one who actually fed Asamoah Gyan with the famous through ball to seal the win) Dede Ayew be taken out of the next game through the accumulation of yellow cards. Another meaningless Yellow Card in our long history of unnecessary Card accumulation.

Ghana met Uruguay in the quarter final without Dede Ayew. This is not to say that the result might have been different but consider this, this was a player so inspired he had been voted man of the match in two previous matches before the match with the USA. Who knows? This is for the reader to speculate what might have happened that day had Dede been on the pitch.

So as the BlackStars prepare to win this 2012 tournament, I personally wouldn’t be worrying about their motivation to win given the price at stake, neither would I be worried about complacency given the examples we’ve witnessed during the qualifiers itself, were Nigeria, Egypt and Cameron were all put to the sword, but I would be worried about the BlackStars’ composure and discipline when the stakes are really high – the crucial matches.

To bring home the trophy, the BlackStars must avoid accumulating unnecessary Cards that have always blighted their chances. Period!

Frederich Maafo, UK

Sports Features of Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Source: Maafo, Frederich

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The Globe has established growing use of illegal cellular phones in Ghana’s jail houses, especially at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. There is a long lasting ban on the use of mobile phones behind bars. Our investigations established that ever smaller handsets allow phones to be smuggled in by prisoners, visitors or corrupt staff.

As at January 9, 2012, the total number of inmates in the nation’s jail houses stood at 13,588. At the Nsawam Prison official figures put the population of inmates at January 3,512. But, it is unknown the unknown the number of inmates at Nsawam who have access to the smuggled mobile phones. “Indeed, the most precious commodity inside the Nsawam prison today is the mobile phone”, said a worried junior officer with the Ghana Prisons Service, who wished not to be named. There are fears illegal phones could fuel prison drug trading, bullying and gang problems.

Behind bars, phones can cost 300 Ghana cedis, the phones are usually paid for by relations and friends of phone-seeking inmates. Smuggled into the prisons by relations of inmates and in many cases prison officers, the phones are used to organise narcotic drug deals, intimidate victims, and plan armed robbery attacks from prison with criminal gangs outside the prison walls. “The use of mobile phones in our facilities has become a serious business raking in money for both inmates and prison officers,” the officer said.

“It is an issue that has been with us for some time now,” the young Prison Officer told the Globe newspaper, adding: “Top management of the Prison Service is aware, but has virtually refused to deal with the problem.” “Visitors to the facilities and some corrupt senior officers are the ones fuelling the illegal practice,” said the officer.

The revelations come at the time some European countries and some states in the United States have stepped up crack-down on illegal mobile phone use in their jail houses, after a series of bloody prison violence blamed on phones smuggled into prison cells.

Accra, Jan 11, GNA – Vice President John Dramani Mahama has called on Africans to establish domestic organisations that would enable them to monitor and evaluate their performance in various sectors, instead of their over-dependence on foreign and donor support.

He said their perennial engagement of such foreign organisations was not helpful to the continent as most of them were not accustomed to the African culture and values and at the end distort their historical origins.

Vice President Mahama made this call on Wednesday during the sixth African Evaluation Association conference under the theme: “Rights and Responsibility in Development Evaluation in Accra”.

The African Evaluation Association was founded in 1999 in response to a growing demand for information sharing, advocacy and advanced capacity building in evaluation in Africa.

The Association, which is an umbrella organisation of national monitoring and evaluation associations and networks in Africa was organised in Ghana by the National Development Planning Commission and the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana in collaboration with the secretariat.

Vice President Mahama appealed to member countries to focus their evaluations on the levels of poverty in the continent and device ways of mitigating such levels to make the region attractive to nationals of other continents.

He appealed to African groups and societies to mobilise learn and engage themselves in re-positioning the continent in the areas of good governance, democracy and the rule of law in the coming years.

Mrs. Florence Etta president of Africa Evaluation Association, said development was about creating an enabling environment which would provide Africans to harness their full potential to exercise their rights.

She noted that the enjoyment of human rights could pave a way for the development and transformation of countries to better positions in all sectors of development.

Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, who chaired the programme, reiterated the relevance of empowering women in Africa as a collective responsibility of all Africans.

GNA

Coach Goran Stevanovic early on named a provisional 25 man squad all of who converged at Rustenberg, South Africa in preparation towards the biennial tournament which begins on January 21.

The final 23 man list is as follows;

Goalkeepers: Adam Kwarasey, Daniel Adjei, Ernest Sowah.

Defenders: Samuel Inkoom, John Paintsil, John Boye, Daniel Opare, Masawudu Alhassan, Lee Addy, John Mensah, Jonathan Mensah, Isaac Vorsah

Midfielders: Charles Takyi, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu, Derek Boateng, Anthony Annan, Mohammed Abu, Kwadwo Asamoah, Sulley Muntari, Andre Ayew

Strikers : Prince Tagoe, Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Ayew.

Source: myjoyonline.com

Goran Stevanovic is now awaiting today’s arrival of Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu from their base in Italy. Ghana’s 25-man squad would be complete on Tuesday, when striker, Asamoah Gyan joins his colleagues.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA), has learned that that the sole Ghanaian Dance Craze Azonto, is making wide waves around the world and threatening to spawn its own YouTube industry as dance enthusiasts try to out-do each other by posting the most hilarious and most accomplished Azonto moves on the video channel.

According to the GNA study, the Azonto dance originated from the traditional Ghanaian dance, Kpanlogo which first started in indigenous localities in the Greater Accra Region such as Bukom, James Town, Chorkor and in the port town of Tema.

Now the Azonto dance has taken over other dance forms at clubs, house parties and churches in the country as mainly the youth and those across the world are infected with Azonto movements.

The free style dance involves the shaking of hips, stretching and pointing hands to different direction at a tempo to song beat and sometimes mimicking the performance of household chores like washing or doing some ironing.

More recently, some popular Ghanaian hip hop stars such as Sarkodie, 4×4 and Gasmillan have adopted the dance and arranged their musical beats to the movements of Azonto dancers.

The world has seen lots of Dance Craze creations ranging from break-dancing, the Macarena, the Twist and many more but few will beat the exhilarating vigour, dynamism and sheer creativity of Azonto.

Entertainment legal experts are therefore calling on the Ghanaian authorities to capitalise on the Azonto dance wave and protect it and use it to market the country.

Source: Myjoyonline

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