Doha, November 05 (QNA) – Ghana possesses the makings to become the 2nd African country after Nigeria, to qualify from the group stage on three different editions of the World Cup, but Ghana’s results are difficult to predict.
Ghana qualified for the 2nd round on their debut in Germany 2006, and repeated this 4 years later in South Africa, but failed to do so in their 3rd consecutive participation in Brazil 2014.
Ghana, during its 44th participation at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, will try to write history by qualifying for the second round for the third time. They were on the cusp of making glorious history when they almost reached the semi-final of World Cup 2010 in South Africa, but their star Asamoah Gyan missed a penalty kick in the last minute of quarterfinal match extra time against Uruguay, and Ghana missed their chance to become the first African country to reach the semifinals of the World Cup.
But high expectations can sometimes lead to adverse performances, especially when the team is representing a country passionate about football who can easily turn against their team if results are below expectations. Ghana is ranked 60th in the world. The team will play in a strong group that includes Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea.
However, the difficult group may motivate Ghana to qualify to the next round of the Qatar World Cup, especially in light of its quest for revenge against Uruguay, which deprived it of the historic achievement in 2010, and Portugal, which inflicted the early exit on the Black Stars in 2014. Meanwhile they face South Korea for the first in the World Cup.
The current coach is Otto Addo, who made his history as a player at the 2006 World Cup in Germany before becoming a coach, does not have such prominent international players as previous generations.
He will rely on on Spanish Athletic Bilbao striker Inaki Williams, Southampton player Mohamed Salisu, as well as Brightons Tariq Lamptey who played for the English youth national team, along with national team captain Andre Ayew, the current wing of the Qatari Al Sadd team, who is the 2nd son of the three-time best African player Abidi Pele, and in addition to the 19-year-old player Felix Afena Gyan, the Italian Roma player, who is the latest rising talent in Ghanaian football.
The Black Stars, who have chosen to train at the Aspire Zone stadiums, will start their Qatar World Cup campaign with a strong showdown against Portugal on Nov. 24 at the Stadium 974, and then meet the South Koreans on the 28th of the same month at the Education City stadium, and then play against the Uruguayan national team on Dec. 2 at Al-Janoub stadium ending the group stage.
The Ghanaian federation has chosen the DoubleTree Hilton hotel as the team’s residence during the Qatar World Cup and will train at stadium No. 1 of the Aspire Zone stadiums.
The Ghanaian national team qualified for the World Cup finals for the 4th time in its history after topping its group in the second round of the African qualifiers for the World Cup by obtaining 13 points in Group G, surpassing the national teams of South Africa, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe, after winning 4 matches for a draw and defeat, to qualify for the 3rd and critical round, where Ghana took the qualification card from Nigeria after drawing 1-1 in Abuja in an away match and with no goals in a home match to qualify in away goals difference.
Ghana, whose football federation was founded in 1957 and joined FIFA in 1958, owns a distinguished history at the World Cup finals, where during its last 3 participations, it managed to skip the group stage twice, its best was in the 2010’s Cup, when it qualified for the quarterfinals, and was on the cusp of qualifying for the semifinals at the expense of Uruguay.
During its previous 3 participations in the World Cup, Ghana played 12 matches during which it managed to win in 4 matches, draw in 3, losing in 5, scoring 13 goals, and conceding 16 goals.
Ghana stands out at the African level, where it won the African Championship of Nations title in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982, while losing the final five times in 1968, 1970, 1992, 2010 and 2015.
Ghanaian football has offered the world many special stars throughout its history, the most prominent of which was Abidi Pele, the only Ghanaian player who was selected in the list of the 100 best players in the history of football, selected by FIFA.
He is considered the greatest player in the history of Ghana, having been crowned the best player in Africa in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
There is also Opoku N’ti, the icon of Ghanaian football in the eighties, who led his country to win the African Cup of Nations in 1982, as well as Karim Abdul Razak, Antoine Bell and Mohamed Polo.
Ghanaian football is proud to have Asamoah Gyan as the best African scorer in the history of the World Cup with 6 goals, where he represented his country at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 finals, and the best scorer in the history of the Ghanaian national team with 51 goals in 105 international matches, with a distinguished group of stars, most notably Sulley Muntari, Samuel Kuffour, Stephen Appiah, Anthony Yeboah and Michael Essien.
The star of the current generation of the Ghanaian national team is Andre Ayew, who is expected to lead the team at the Qatar World Cup, being distinguished in the Qatari league with Al Sadd club, as well as the outstanding striker Inaki Williams, who is in brilliant in the Spanish league. Mohamed Salisu and Tariq Lamptey are also featuring in the Premier League, Brighton player, in addition to the latest talents of the rising Ghanaian football Felix Afena Gyan,19 years old, Roma player. (QNA)