Black Stars Must Come To The Party If Gabon Would End The Long Wait

Ebo Quansah in Accra
The 2017 African Cup of Nations opened in Libreville, capital of oil rich Gabon, with an entertainment extravaganza and a poor opening game between the host nation and new entrants Guinea Bissau. At a point in time, the opening game looked like school boys' kick about in a rich neighbourhood.

Cameroon and Burkina Faso re-ignited the African game in a hugely entertaining 1-1 draw. But the drab opener was a put off, so not many people around the world might have tuned in to the second game. Two matches were expected yesterday in Group B, with two more today in Group C.

But to most people at the centre of the earth, the African Cup proper begins tomorrow, when the Black Stars of Ghana begin the task of capturing the trophy for the first time since a make-shift team, packaged under a certificate of emergency, walked into the desert storm in Libya and returned with the then African Unity Cup.

That was during the Harmattan of 1982, thirty-five solid years ago; certainly longer than the number of years newly-installed President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Communications Director has spent on this earth.

Thirty-five years is certainly too long a time for the Black Stars to continue seeking their fifth win in the continental championship. In its desperation, the Ghana Football Association has issued what amounts to an ultimatum to national coach Avram Grant. Win the Cup or forget about your coaching job in this country!

I do not believe the standard set for the coach is fair, but that is another matter. What is important for men and women in this part of the world is the return of the trophy to this country. It is one expectation that is not based on the raw facts, I am afraid. The Black Stars have moved from 34 in the world to 54 in a relative short time of one year.  The fact that the national team has not won in five outings tells its own story. In Africa, we used to be the leading football nation. The latest FIFA ratings lists Ghana as ninth in Africa, certainly not the very best.

Realistically, it would take more than sheer bravado for a team, ranked ninth, to topple all those ahead of the national team and return to Accra from Libreville with the trophy. But football is a funny old game. There are times when the game turns out results that completely defy logic.

We are facing one of those moments in the history of the game, when Ghanaians’ main armoury for capturing the African Cup of Nations rests on a song and a prayer. What is even more worrying is that players of the national team are out there fighting to regain the trophy, with most Ghanaians apathetic to their plight.

Since the 2014 World Cup fiasco in Brazil, where the Black Stars caught more negative publicity off the field than actual performances on it, with local television beaming live the arrival of physical cash from Accra, Ghanaian fans, who were enthusiastic about the Black Stars, have gone cold. Now it is as if the players of the national team and their assignments do not tickle Ghanaians anymore.

That is one reason why the win at all costs directive to Avram Grant does not make much sense. It is a fact universally acknowledged that the coach has not made his presence felt in Ghana football very much. One cannot find his stamp on any aspect of our game, and does not deserve to stay longer than what his contract stipulates.

Asking him to win the African Cup of Nations at all costs looks like extending his contract if that happens. I am not an iconoclast, but I do not believe the Black Stars are in the title-winning class at the moment. The team we have taken to Gabon does not excite much. On top of that, Grant failed the litmus the test long ago. For me, win or lose, Grant must find his way out of this country.

I am of the view that the time has long come to entrust the team into the capable hands of a knowledgeable Ghanaian. I feel that in spite of the problems Kwasi Appiah encountered in Brazil, he is still the man to lead the national team from the front.

The fight for the trophy begins for the people at the centre of the earth tomorrow, when the Black Stars take on the Cranes of Uganda in the second largest Gabonese city of Port Gentile. Kick-off is at three O'clock in the afternoon. In Gabon, the time would be 5:00 p.m. Egypt and Mali will do battle on the same venue after the Ghana-Uganda game at 6:00, Greenwich Mean Time.

Four days later, on Saturday, January 21, the Black Stars will face the Eagles of Mali, before rounding off the group games with a crunch encounter against Egypt. Whatever crystal ball one looks into, the battle will be tasking. How the fixtures paired three of Africa's World Cup qualifying competitors – Ghana, Egypt and Uganda – together in the African Cup of Nations, will remain a talking point for a long time to come.

No one in this triumvirate, as well as Mali, can ever be regarded as a minnow in the African game. Uganda began playing in the African Cup of Nations a year before the Black Stars actually made their debut in the 1963 championship, and won on home soil. But it was not until the 1978 championship in Accra, when the Cranes drew attention to themselves as a potential threat in African football.

Led by Philip Omondi, who went on to become the top scorer in the competition, the Cranes reached the final for the first time. Two strikes from Asante Kotoko's prolific scorer Opoku Afriyie settled the match, and the tournament in favour of the home team.

The Cranes took flight and never returned until the preliminary series of the 2017 AFCON, when Faroukh Miya netted the lone goal against Comoros Island to ensure qualification.  Uganda scored six times in qualifying, with no player ever netting more than once.

The Black Stars defence would have to be wary of Miya, 21, a striker with Belgium top flight team Standard Liege. He previously played for Vipers, certainly not the former first division team based at Cape Coast. These Vipers are full of venom in the Ugandan first division.

One other player who is likely to pose a threat to the Black Stars is veteran midfielder Tony Mawejje. At 29, he is Uganda's most capped player on duty in Gabon. He has already played 71 times for his country.

The Cranes are managed by Serbian Milutin Sredojevic, who replaced Bobby Williamson, a Scottish. The Ugandans need not frighten the wits out of the Black Stars, in spite of their fighting goalless draw game at the Tamale Stadium in Ghana's World Cup opening game.

The only problem with this game is Black Stars' perennial disappointing results in opening games in most contests. The national players must come out fighting from the blast of the whistle. If they fail to beat Uganda tomorrow, they may as well kiss good bye to the whole competition.

As far as I am concerned, the real drama unfolds in the next two games, when the Black Stars do battle with Mali and Egypt on January 21 and 25 respectively. Mali will certainly pose a more dangerous opposition than Uganda, in spite of the fact that veteran campaigner Seydou Keita has finally retired with 102 caps under his belt.

Coached by Alain Girese, a former French international and one of the finest footballers in his days, the Eagles of Mali have never been cannon fodder at the African Cup of Nations. The Malians have never won the cup, reaching their only finals in 1972, when they lost to Congo Brazzaville in a 3-2 thriller. But they are always a mouthful at the games.

The Eagles are ranked 64^th in the world. But they put in more efforts than their rankings at major tournaments. At the moment, their key man is Crystal Palace's winger Bakary Sako, with skipper Yacoub Sylla directing the midfield. Winning the trophy looks a tall order for the men from the Sahel. But the Malians have both flair and the physique to test any opponent throughout the tournament.

When the Black Stars face Egypt on January 25, there will be more than the right to qualify from Group D at stake. The rivalry between the two sides reached fever heights since the Black Stars humbled the Pharaohs 6-1 at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, on their way to their third straight World Cup in Brazil.

On the return leg in Cairo, the whole of Egypt was on fire, with nationals urging their national team to seek revenge with a 5-0 victory. That dream was never realised. The Egyptians managed a 2-1 win. When the Pharaohs triumphed 2-0 over the famed national team of Ghana in the 2018 World Cup preliminary in Cairo, last November, the local press believed the visitors had been put in their right place in African football.

That defeat has also created an anxiety in Ghana, with the local population calling for a total annihilation of the Pharaohs in Gabon. That is why the Ghana-Egypt match at Port Gentile is more serious than the three points at stake.

Putting the two sides together in the World Cup preliminaries has not helped to diffuse tension. On paper, the Egyptians appear to have rejuvenated from the Arab Spring that nearly killed football in the Arab world.

In their desire to rise up from the ashes, the Football Federation of Egypt contracted American Bob Brady to manage the Pharaohs. It did not work. After the 6-1 humiliation in Kumasi, Bradley resigned when the team could only manage a 2-1 win in the return leg in November 2013. Local idol Shawky Ghariel was then hired. He too failed the litmus test. Now, Argentine Hector Cuper is directing affairs, after arriving in March 2015.

He has worked magic so far, according to the local press. Cuper's immediate task was to qualify Egypt for the African Cup of Nations after three successive failures. Cuper was the toast of all in Egyptian football, when he succeeded in the first time of asking.  A 2-0 victory over Tanzania in June confirmed Egypt's place in Gabon.

Unlike the strong Egyptian side of the immediate past, when the fulcrum of the team was home-based, the new-look Pharaohs are looking to Europe for their star performers. AS Roma striker Mohammed Salah is leading from the front. There is also the Arsenal midfielder, Mohammed Elneny, operating in front. Egyptian football is grateful to the role of Stoke City winger Ramadan Sobhi, a young emerging, but already enterprising lad.

There is more. There are strikers Mahmoud Abdelmoeneim Kahraba and Ahmed Hassan lending support upfront. The worry is that the two strikers have only managed 10 goals between them in a number of matches. The Egyptian press though, is enthused about how Cuper is blending a tight defence with a free moving midfield, which is a constant support to the front two.

Egyptian football is rising from the ashes, and their crunch match with the Black Stars is likely to be one of the defining moments of the 2017 African Cup of Nations.

If the Black Stars manage to qualify for from this group of death, they are very likely to go far in the competition. Snag is that without the services of Kwadwo Asamoah in the midfield, the national team of Ghana might struggle.

The bottom line is that the Black Stars are going into Africa without the usual big boys of John Essien and Sulley Muntari to push the young lads, which leaves the hard job on the shoulders of skipper Asamoah Gyan and West Ham's winger Andre Dede Ayew. If the Black Stars should win the African Cup, then the likes of Jordan Ayew, Harrison Afful, Christian Atsu, the most valued player in the 2015 tournament, John Boye, Jonathan Mensah and Emmanuel Agyeman Badu and co. must come to the party.

It is a pretty tall order!