The Black Stars of Ghana could become the first African nation to reach the world cup knockout stage three times in a row if they defeat Portugal on Thursday and other results go their way.
Ghana reached the knockout stage in Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010, and should they qualify this time round, would have gotten out of their group for the third consecutive time; a feat never achieved by any African nation at the world cup.
Africa’s participation on the world stage has never been uplifting as one would hope. Since the continent was first represented on the world stage by Egypt in 1934, it has been difficult to make a lasting impression on the larger stage. Until 1986, no African side had ever made it out of the group stages, whilst Italia 90’ saw Cameroon’s sublime run to the quarter-finals, a move emulated by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.
Despite all this, the one thing that had plagued the continent was consistency, as no one team could make their mark and return to subsequent mundials and stay at that top level. After reaching the quarter-finals in 1990, Cameroon crashed out of the group stages in 1994. The sad truth is whilst there has been as African side in the second round of every world cup since 1986, its only on two occasions that the same side has reached that stage consecutively; Nigeria in USA 94’ and France 98’, and Ghana in 2006 and 2010.
This should be a testament to the great work the Black Stars have been doing since first qualifying for the world cup in 2006. In both 2006 and 2010, Ghana was the only African side to reach the second round, and everyone knows what happened in 2010 and how close the Stars’ came to becoming the first African side to ever make the world cup semi finals.
Another record which could be broken this time is the inability of more than one African nation to qualify from the group stages at the same world cup. Since the inception of the world cup there hasn’t been a single tournament where two African sides reached the second round, but that could be broken in Brazil this year- Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, and Algeria all stand a chance to qualify from their groups.
There have always been issues with Africa’s low representation at the world cup, with only five spots reserved for a fairly large continent, but that situation would never change if the African sides do not acquit themselves well as they have failed to do in the past. With this record on the horizon for Ghana, and with the increased performance of the African teams at this tourney, perhaps change lies in the air for the fortunes of African sides at subsequent world cups.
In the Stars camp, defender John Boye and Kevin Prince Boateng trained with the side yesterday meaning coach Kwesi Appiah has a full side at his disposal for Thursday’s make or break game against Portugal.
The two picked up knocks during the pulsating 2-2 draw with Germany and had missed a couple of training sessions since, but both joined in yesterday’s training session to give Kwesi Appiah the full complement of his squad.