The mood of uncertainty that characterized the fate of Ghana’s national soccer team, Black Stars after their disastrous trial match against Holland, has now completely changed to a hopeful one following the splendid 1-0 win over Latvia on Saturday. Many of the doomsayers in the Ghanaian media who predicted that Ghana would be only tourists in South Africa are now full of praise for Coach Rajevac Milovan and his squad.

The absence of injured Michael Essien, the team’s talisman, is now hardly discussed. Not even the possible exclusion of experienced winger Sulley Muntari nursing an ankle injury seems to be a matter of concern. The belief now is that on the form shown against Latvia, the Black Stars can boast of enough talents to make their presence felt in South Africa. As an admirer of Muntari it hurts me that he is most likely to join the growing number of international stars like Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire), Ferdinand (England), Robben (Holland), Mikel Obi (Nigeria) and Ballack (Germany) who will miss the football showpiece. That is the unpredictable nature of sports.

Many Ghanaians are still wondering what might have accounted for the sudden change in attitude of the Black Stars from the extremely lethargic show against Holland to the businesslike approach against Latvia. It was quite a pleasant surprise. Everybody played his role well and if the referee had been a little more vigilant, I believe the first goal by Asamoah Gyan would not have been disallowed. It was a perfect long ranger and the goalie was completely unsighted. You needed no white cane to see that the whole circumference of the ball crossed the line bouncing beautifully in the net as shown by TV replays. A friend has said with some amount of authority that the goal was disallowed because Asamoah Gyan had been told by team officials to reserve all his goals for the real tournament. Perhaps we would need an official explanation since for the past days we have had conflictingly strange news coming from the Black Stars camp.

First it was Laryea Kingston who was to have nearly beaten up Serbian coach Milovan when the final 23 squad for South Africa was named excluding him. The FA official spokesman denied any such thing happened even though it was on all over the international media. Then there was this story of Sulley Muntari leaving the team hotel in Holland unceremoniously for London ahead of the team’s departure to seek medical attention with the Doctor in charge of Chelsea. It was said that he had earlier requested to have a room to himself and was not prepared to share a room with his any of his colleagues. It turned out to be a different story altogether and that official version is that Sulley actually went out with the Black Stars team doctor to have a scan on his suspected injured ankle. It is a big puzzle that conflicting stories continue to emanate from the camp of the Black Stars. What can the matter be? The Football Association (FA) must close their ranks and ensure maximum security for the team in South Africa before we hear stories of players being bribed with dollars to play matches of convenience. The FA officials should not lose sight of the fact that Ghana has a huge appetite for rumour mongering. Anyway what happened to the request by the players that their allowances should be kept a secret for reasons not too difficult to guess? There already publications that they will take home 115,000 dollars each after the first round matches. What about that?

Well the focus now is that the Black Stars have whipped the appetite of football loving Ghanaians to expect greater things to come and there should be no turning back.

By the way, whoever advised Black Stars newcomer Dominic Adiyiah to go in for that crazy hair cut has done a great disservice to his admirers back home. It reminds one of the infamous Red Skins that terrorized blacks in Britain decades ago. The young man should be advised not to copy blindly but focus on improving upon the talents the good Lord has given him.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.