The Black Stars of Ghana will take on the United States coming Monday night as they kick off their third successive world cup campaign.
And for a third successive world cup, the Black Stars would have to beat the team from across the Atlantic if they are to have any realistic chance of making the next round. Paired in a so-called ‘Group of Death’ alongside European heavyweights Germany and Portugal, either side are aware of the value victory in this game would bring; as a loss would all but guarantee the elimination of the side in question.
In two previous world cup encounters, Ghana beat the United States 2-1; in the Group stage in Germany and at the second round stage in South Africa.
Bob Bradley led USA into both encounters, and his successor-Jurgen Klinsmann is not eager to suffer the same fate as the American. Klinsmann has already brought a change of style and mentality to the United States’ team, and from watching Ghana demolish South Korea 4-0 a week ago in a friendly is well aware of the threat his side would be facing.
“Obviously a great result for Ghana” Klinsmann said of the 4-0 win. “I wanted to see them myself and have an impression there, and we have that now”
Nevertheless, the German believes despite the history and pedigree of the Black Stars, his side can stand toe-to-toe with the them.
“We feel very confident going into this game against Ghana. But we also know what Ghana represents, one of the top nations in Africa, no doubt about it”
“But we are eager to challenge them, eager to go eye to eye now”
The Black Stars for their part are deep into final preparations, with the team having held an open training session on Friday, which fans turned up for in their numbers. Majeed Warris trained with the team, eliminating one of the biggest headaches of coach-Kwesi Appiah.
The form of the team heading into this game has been sketchy. Despite an impressive 4-0 win over South Korea last Monday, the team preceded that with a dour 1-0 loss to the Netherlands which rekindled all the issues fans have with this team. The Netherlands has since gone on to demolish world champions Spain 5-1, so maybe the Stars were not as abysmal that night as people perceived them to be.
Either way, Monday’s game is a must win game for the team, coming as it does before games against Germany and Portugal. Three-time world champions Germany, as well as Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo are going to be extremely challenging tests for the resolve of this particular crop of players, and anything less than three points on Monday would hugely affect morale going into the subsequent games.
There are only a few personnel changes left for Kwesi Appiah to resolve, such as the positioning of playmaker-Kwadwo Asamoah. The Juventus midfielder has been deputizing at left-back for a while now, though attacking midfield remains his strongest suit. It would be interesting to see where he is deployed in the first game. No one is quite sure who would be in post, whilst Jordan Ayew’s hattrick means he would be knocking at the door of the starting eleven.
Aside these uncertainties, the line-up should be the same as those who started the last friendly game against South Korea.
Inasmuch as history is on the side of the Black Stars, there is a new look to the United States team which promises a much tougher task this time around. As far as world cup opening games go, Ghana lost 2-0 to Italy in 2006, before beating Serbia 1-0 in 2010.
The game kicks off on Monday 16 June at 22:00 GMT.
with focus the stars will win by 2 or more goals..#focus