Nationwide discussions on the Black Stars’ narrow 1-0 win over Serbia and the subsequent 4-0 mauling of Australia by Germany suggest that the Stars could face a severe test of character against the Socceroos on Saturday June19.

Not surprisingly, opinion is sharply divided on the quality of play of the Black Stars and how they would fare against Australia. Those who think the Black Stars are too defensive minded to score a lot of goals seem to be in the minority. Popular opinion shows that the nation has a lot of confidence in the team to reach the knock-out stage at the least.  Asamoah Gyan, who was vastly vilified in the 2008 Nations Cup to the extent that his family was almost tempted to advise him to quit the game or at best stop wearing the national colours, is now a national hero. His exploits in the South Africa qualifying series and the Cup of Nations in Angola have made him the Black Stars most adored goal poacher. Analysts believe that if Gyan is able to capitalize on half chances like he did in the trial match against The Netherlands quite recently, he could set another record like he did in the last World Cup in Germany scoring the fastest goal.

It is remarkable to note that Serbian coach Rajevac Milovan has had to contend with a lot of criticism for his tactics that do not seem to produce too many goals. But the die- hards contend that since he keeps on winning, his system should not be a problem. Perhaps the problem would be how to counteract the combative nature of the Australian style of play. In the match against Germany, the Socceroos had three yellow cards and one red and this tells a lot.

What this means is that, Dede Ayew and his fellow ball jugglers must either be extra swift on the ball or adopt quick passes. With that heavy defeat at the hands of Germany, the Australians would naturally be the more aggressive side knowing fully well that another defeat would see their early exit from Mandela’s beloved country. Incidentally, the Germany- Serbia encounter would precede the Ghana- Australia match and since the results would have been known by then, there would be a lot of pressure on both Ghana and Australia to shine. And this is where sportsmanship will come to play.

The observation so far is that referees are being extremely liberal with the yellow and red cards. Players must therefore learn to play to the whistle, avoid extreme body contacts and any antics that might be seen in the eyes of the referee to be a trick to deceive him.

The word antic brings to mind the Serbian national coach who is called Raddy Antic.  If he were in Ghana, his name would have been given a lovely twist like his compatriot Rajevac Milovan who is simply called Milo –that well known food beverage. I was really tickled by the post match interview between the two Serbs on opposite sides speaking the same language.  I am going to find out whether this is a World cup record and I am anxious to see the two Germans- born Boatengs with the same biological father playing against each other in the Ghana- Germany match on June 23.

Surely South Africa 2010 has a lot of surprise packages and the long wait for this football extravaganza was worthwhile.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.