There is no doubt that Ghana’s Under 20 national football team, Black Satellites, have shown a lot of determination and poise to reach the knockout stage of the ongoing Youth World Cup in Egypt.

The hard fought 2-1 opening victory over Uzbekistan toughened them up for the hard times ahead but they found the English toddlers too soft to offer any tangible opposition and the 4-0 win showed the gulf between the two sides.

The third match against Uruguay was, as they say, a different ball game altogether. The South Americans met the Satellites boot for boot and completely felt at home with the hard play adopted by the Satellites at certain stages of the game that saw Ghana’s first goal scorer Rabiu Mohammed being sacked midway through the second half.

With a 2-0 goal advantage and playing with ten men, the Satellites had to contend with the avalanche of attacking forays by Uruguay.

It was a real testing time for the Ghana defence and the fact that Uruguay was able to cancel both goals showed the defensive frailty of Ghana. Even though Ghana has eight goals so far to their credit with three against, goalkeeper Daniel Adjei has yet to be fully tested. He has so far made no dramatic saves and analysts believe Ghana’s progress in thee competition would very much depend on his agility in the posts.

The quarter final berth against Czech Republic who held mighty Brazil to a goalless will be a real test of character for Adjei.

The standard of competition has been quite high and one could point a number of budding stars who could be in the national colours for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa 2010.

Once again I would like to put on record my appreciation for the high standard of organization by hosts Egypt.