The English Premiership and the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Angola are competing for international media attention apparently because of the many African stars now in Angola who would have ordinarily been in action in the English league.

Analysts had been busy trying to figure out what the absence of the African stars from the English league would mean to their respective clubs particularly Chelsea who have four key players in Angola , namely Didier Drogba, Solomon Kalou (Cote d’Ivoire), Michael Essien (Ghana) and Mikel Obi(Nigeria). It did not take long for Chelsea to satisfy the curiosity of the analysts by whipping a hapless Sunderland side 7-2 at Stamford Bridge.

This was barely 24 hours after three of their African stars had battled against each other in a fierce Ghana- Cote d’Ivoire confrontation in Cabinda with Drogba and Kalou on one side against Essien.

Whilst Essien was licking his wounds after the 3-1 thrashing of the Black Stars, Drogba was in high spirits for leading the Elephants to be the first to reach the last eight. It was double celebration for Drogba but little consolation for Essien who has the unenviable task of leading the Black Stars to a compulsory victory on Tuesday against Burkina Faso to avoid an embarrassing early exit from Angola.

It is a very dicey situation because the Burkinabes need only a draw to sail into the next round and if their performance against Cote d’Ivoire is any yardstick to measure their strength then the Black Stars have a herculian task indeed. In the match under review, Burkina Faso tackled strongly throughout and succeeded in preventing star packed Cote d’Ivoire from playing any cohesive game.

Essien, just recovering from a knee injury, was introduced into the game against Cote d’Ivoire in the second half. Even though he showed class the Black Stars rearguard , notably keeper Kingston, was far below his peak and he needs to be more alert than he did the other day to save the rather inexperienced  youthful Black Stars from  a potential humiliation.

Even though it is 28 years since Ghana won the cup, the Black Stars have a huge reputation in the Africa Cup of Nations history and nobody should toy with that. In 1965, Ghana equaled Egypt’s back to back cup record and went further to reach two finals thus setting an unprecedented four consecutive times cup final appearance in Ethiopia 1968 and Sudan 1970.

Indeed, at the time Ghana won the original Africa Cup for keeps in 1978 Egypt, the current six times winners, had not reached the cup final since 1962. Cameroun presently four times winners had never then reached the cup final.

Well, the cynics would describe all this as fit for the archives. In local parlance they would say “the hunter is the one who has his game on display”. It’s over to you Michael Essien and the 2010 generation of the Black Stars. The numerous soccer experts in Ghana are anxiously waiting for the post mortem examination and you have to rise to the occasion. This is what makes the game tick.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports