I remember quite well the interesting remarks made by Ghana’s late Sports Director Ohene Djan in 1965 when his pet club Real Republikans won the bronze medal in the maiden Africa Cup for champion clubs with a 3-1 victory over Cotton Club of Ethiopia.

The flamboyant sports administrator said, “In a competition like this, no medals can be said to be inferior”.

This was in direct response to his critics who took the star packed Republikans to the cleaners for not reaching the final that saw Oryx of Cameroun beating Stade of Mali to win the competition staged in Ghana.

I would like to borrow Ohene Djan’s words of inspiration and urge Ghana’s Black Stars to go for the bronze in Saturday’s losing semi- finalists’ match of AFCON 2012 against Mali in Malabo because  the medal cannot be said to be inferior under the circumstances.

To place third among 16 competitors cannot be said to be too bad a performance and Ghana should be able to overcome the shocking loss to Zambia in the semi-finals and go for the bronze.

Don’t forget that even when Ghana hosted the tournament in 2008, the Stars had to struggle to win the bronze at the expense of Cote d’Ivoire.

May be this was what motivated them to reach the final in 2010 only to lose narrowly to Egypt.

Obviously it was the absence of Egypt in the current competition that convinced analysts to put Ghana among the strong favourites to win the cup.

They started quite well but the lacklustre show in the crucial semi-final against Zambia did not help matters against a tactically disciplined Zambian side that deservedly carried the day. Now there is no choice but to go for the third choice medal to bring the medal tally to three in a row- 2008, 2010, 2012.

It’s not going to be easy though. It could be a tricky affair.  Ghana beat Mali 2-0 in the second round and straightaway I would say history is not on the side of Ghana.

In the 1968 championships in Ethiopia, the Black Stars beat Congo in the second round only to lose the final against the same side.

History can repeat itself unless the Black Stars approach the game with much more seriousness than they did against Zambia the giant killers who may not be a second time lucky in their cup final clash against the top class professionals from Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday

Just as I was about to finish this write up my good friend ,Kwaku Busanga , who always conjures reasons for the defeat of the Black Stars  said Ghana was not interested in keeping the Cup for only a year since the next championships come off next year  to start a cycle that would avoid clashing with the World Cup year.

Sour grapes you may say but that is a typical football fanatic for you.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

April 10th1994: Nigeria beat Zambia 2-1 to win Africa Cup in Tunis.Cote d’Ivoire beat Mali 3-1 to win bronze