The Black Stars Of Ghana at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on June 26, 2010 Rustenburg,in S Africa FIFA World Cup
The Good. The Black Stars’ advance to the quarter finals of the World Cup captured the hearts of a continent and of friends around the world and in the process became a symbol of African hope and unity that transcended sports. South Africans adopted the Black Stars as BaGhana BaGhana after their national team, Bafana Bafana, was eliminated and some there wondered if the spirit of soccer might overcome the smouldering tensions that have fueled attacks on African migrants in that country for years. Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association, said the team’s success could “heal and unite” the African continent. “Even in troubled places like Somalia, people are cheering for us…That’s the power of football. People in Darfur and Somalia who should be fighting are glued to their televisions. For 90 minutes, there is no war.” (The Globe and Mail, July 1, 2010.)
The Bad. Euphoria crashed with the Black Stars loss to Uruguay, a defeat made all the more agonizing by the closeness of the play and by the kinds of questionable calls by the officials that led to world-wide demands that FIFA employ modern technology to bring greater fairness to the beautiful game.
The Questions. First, will the spirit of hope survive the loss of a football match? Will the shared heartache of a mere game work to strengthen African unity? We will have to wait for the answer while some of us work to ensure that the answer is, Yes!”
Second question. What has happened to youth soccer in Ghana since I left in 1968 to propel the national team onto the world Stage? In my time kids played soccer with enthusiasm and joy on makeshift fields and on school teams. There must have been a national soccer program because I saw The Black Stars play Nigeria at Black Star Stadium in 1968 but there were few signs of a system of children’s leagues guided by organized coaching in Northern Ghana where I lived. A bit of Internet research reveals that much has changed. Now youth coaches in Tamale and throughout the north bring their stars to try-outs held by elite soccer academies who pay the parents of successful candidates before taking them four hundred miles or more to the south where they will live and train for several years. The children do not see their parents during this time. The goal is to train players for elite foreign leagues where the financial return will be greatest for the athletes, their families and the academy. Hungry for a Better Life, a feature on the ESPN site, frames this as a once in a lifetime chance for young boys from Northern Ghana to escape grinding poverty. www.elllo.org presents the situation as verging on child slavery. “…some of them (young athletes) even end up not actually meeting their potential, and end up doing some other stuff, end up in crime, end up doing some other stuff, and there’s a lot of corruption in that. People actually go, there are families in Ghana which actually pay people, pay teams, just to sell their young kids to these foreign scouts. So it’s really unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate.”
Third Question. Has life improved for children of Northern Ghana? I don’t think so. jacktoronto@telus.net
Asamoah Gyan dedicated his winning goal in Ghana’s 2-1 extra-time last-16 win over the USA to the whole of Africa.
Ghana reached the quarter-finals for the first time – only the third African team to do so – courtesy of the Rennes striker’s 93rd-minute winner.
The Black Stars will play Uruguay in the last eight and Gyan said: “I am the happiest man in the world.
“In 2006 we made the second round, now we have gone a step further. We’ve made Ghana and the whole of Africa proud.”
Gyan’s third goal of the tournament means the 24-year-old is joint top tournament goalscorer with three alongside Uruguay’s Luis Suarez and Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain .
Suarez and Gyan will have the opportunity to add to their tallies when Uruguay and Ghana meet in Johannesburg on 2 July for a place in the semi-finals.
Despite the sizeable American contingent at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, Ghana’s support was considerably swelled by local fans cheering on the one remaining African team from five left in the competition.
And striker Andre Ayew said the extra support inspired Ghana to success.
“We’re very disappointed there were no African teams with us,” said the son of former Ghana great Abedi Pele. “We must fight, not just for us, but for the other teams that are not here.
“We feel we have a continent behind us and the whole of Africa behind us and that’s given us a lot of energy to fight more.”
Despite the euphoria of reaching the quarter-finals for the first time, Ghana manager Milan Rajevac has injury concerns about opening goalscorer Kevin-Prince Boatenglink text here , who was substituted in the second half because of a hamstring injury, while Ayew will miss the Uruguay match following his second yellow card in four games.
“This is the major problem we are facing for the game against Uruguay, the cards and the injuries,” said Serbian Rajevic.
“We will react tomorrow. There is a lot of work for our medical staff.”
The host South Africans team have prove he can stand to defend the world cup the are dream start at the 2010 World Cup until Mexico equalized late in the match, and the two teams played to a 1-1 draw in the opening game of the tournament in Johannesburg this morning Friday 11 June 2010.
Siphiwe Tshabalala name will go down in history book in Africa and The world cup after he scored the opening goal of the tournament in the 54th minute for the hosts. Rafael Marquez tied the game for Mexico in the 78th minute.
Katlego Mphela had a glorious chance to put South Africa back in front in the 89th minute, but his shot hit the post.
The world and the fun of soccer are waiting for big suprise .
The ‘AIDS Highway’ Africa WINS when You prevent HIV
By Wallace Mawire Harare :For the first time that the World Cup is being played in Africa, the ‘AIDS Highway’ will witness a spectacular combination of the screening of the matches in conjunction with the screening of HIV and AIDS information videos from June 11th to 11th July 2010. The long journey will start along the AIDS Highway (From Kenya, to Johannesburg), where increased mobility and migration in conjunction with rising disposable incomes and the associated escalation of transactional sex are major contributors to the spread of HIV through the region.
The theme is:Africa WINS when You prevent HIV.It is a partnership project between Africa Goal and SAFAIDS.
Dubbed the Africa Goal Campaign, the initiative will witness a team of volunteers driving from Nairobi, Kenya down to Johannesburg South Africa, projecting live World Cup football games on a retractable screen along the journey. The Africa Goal team will target the most disadvantaged and hard to reach villages. These are communities that would never have known about the world cup and very little about HIV.
The project will give them an opportunity to actually watch games as they are happening, touch and blow the vuvuzela bringing the game spirit right into the village. Every afternoon or evening throughout the duration of the tournament, with the help of Digital Satellite Television and a projector, speakers, and a DC/AC inverter, the team will screen the live 2010 World Cup games. Before every live game, the team shall screen HIV and AIDS awareness media supplied by SAfAIDS – the centre for excellence in HIV prevention based in Pretoria, UNAIDS and, when possible, by local NGOs. HIV prevention kits with a vuvuzela bearing a key HIV message will be distributed in the villages to reach close to 20 000 people along the way. While the educational videos will be watched by all the football fans, the largest sector of the football audience is people aged between 15 and 49, correlating with the age sector most severely affected by HIV and AIDS.
In the spirit of the World Cup, the Africa Goal and SAfAIDS vision is to harness the energy and passion of the games to promote increased awareness about the HIV epidemic which has impacted upon the region so dramatically. The main focus will be mainly on HIV prevention, taking a holistic definition of prevention to include the promotion of knowing one’s HIV status; safer sex practices; positive prevention and acknowledging ART as a component of prevention.
With the majority of the audience not having seen live World Cup matches on a big screen before, the occasion will be a highly memorable one and HIV information disseminated at the games will, therefore, imprint on the memories of the viewers and serve as a vital reminder as to how each and every person must play their part in reducing HIV prevalence in the region. On the 11th of July the tired team is expected to arrive in Johannesburg in time for the final match in which we all hope Africa will win.
Indeed Africa WINS when we all prevent HIV says the collaborating partners.
