The thick crowd that filled the Chinese built 20,000 capacity stadium in the northern regional capital of Tamale on Sunday night was unanimous in their verdict that Uganda had given the Black Stars a fitting trial for their impending World Cup assignment against Mali.

The narrow 2-1 win for the Black Stars may not truly reflect the trend of play because the Stars dominated and the tally could have been heavier if they had taken advantage of the rather shaky Ugandan defence especially in the first half. The 2-0 lead with only 15 minutes to go gave the Stars a lot of confidence and why they relaxed for the Ugandans to pull a goal back should be a lesson that it is not over until it is all over.

New kid on the block Ernest Papa Arko who got the curtain raiser in the first half has given Ghanaians the hope that there is no shortage of strikers. The young man is already a household name in Egypt as the current goal king. His antics reminded one of the exploits of that great Asante Kotoko skipper Papa Arko who in 1983 led Kotoko to their second Africa Cup triumph with that nail biting 1-0 win over the dreaded Al Ahly of Egypt in Kumasi. He should keep it up.

When former Asante Kotoko star Yusif Chibsah was called to camp, many people doubted whether he still possessed his sharpness after that long absence from the international circuit, but he showed that his skills had not deserted him. You could see that the second goal he got for Ghana was straight from his old bag of tricks. It would be interesting to see him pairing with Essien in the engine room.

From the general performance of the Black Stars, it is safe to assume that when “General” Michael Essien, fresh from his English FA Cup triumph, is brought in to resume his midfield craftsmanship; Coach Rajevac could assemble a trenchant machine that can stand the test of time. From my point of view it looks like the defence is quite tight and the focus should be on the front runners. I hope I am guessing right.

Kudos to the Football Association for getting the timing of the trial match right. The hot weather in Tamale really matched what one should expect in Bamako on Sunday and it is hoped the Stars would pace themselves carefully not to burn out at the closing stages of the game. I hope to be in the stands in Bamako on Sunday.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM MY ARCHIVES (May 30th & 31st)

May 30th 1993: German first division club Eintracht Frankfurt were docked two points by the country’s football federation for having four foreign players on the field at a time.

May 31st 1994 : Van Basten to replace Gullit in Dutch World Cup team if he passes a fitness test, coach Dick Advocat has said.

May 31st 1995: Nigeria dissolves Golden Eaglets team for losing to Ghana. Reports have it that the Nigerian squad was by the end of the Africa Youth Tournament reduced to 16 players out of the original 22 registered for the tournament due to administrative problems including their passports and red cards

May 30th 1997: Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia smashes world two mile record in 8m 1.08 secs. The old time was 8m3.54 secs by Kenyan Daniel Komen.

May 30th 1998: Romario is out of Brazil’s World Cup squad. Scanning shows injury in the right foot which will take 10 -15 days or even a week to get better. Romario wept bitterly but coach Zagallo said the player had been given longer time to prove his fitness than other players would have been because of his special status.”It wasn’t us who dropped Romario, it was the scan” Zagallo added

May 31st 2000: Dragons Club of Benin claim that Ghana’s Abdul Razak is their coach on a three year contract and he left fro Ghana to train the Black Stars without their knowledge