CAN GHANA STILL QUALIFY FOR THE 2014 WORLD CUP?

 BY: PATRICK OWUSU ANSAH

The journey to 2014 World Cup in Brazil has just become a bit more complicated for the Ghana Black stars .FIFA have ruled that Zambia are awarded a 3-0 victory for the June 2 game they lost 0-2 in Sudan because the Sudanese fielded Saif Ali, who was ineligible because he should have been serving suspension for a red card received in their previous competitive game against none other than Zambia at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

FIFA ruled “lost by forfeit by Sudan” whilst also hitting the Sudanese with a US$6,430 fine. It means that Zambia, who already beat the Black Stars, now have maximum 6 points to Ghana’s 3 and also have the easier set of matches ahead, at least on paper. In fact, the Black Stars need to win all matches to ensure Zambia do not win the group before the match day 6 qualifier in Accra.

Ghana Blackstars have qualified for the Fifa World Cup on two consecutive occasions, and can’t stand the chance of missing out this time round. The only team that would be a threat in Ghana’s group is Zambia, who also leads the group after Fifa’s decision to award them, three points and three goals in the Sudan game. They are now three points clear of the Blackstars. Zambia has never qualified for Fifa World Cup before, and would want to qualify this time after winning the 2012 African Cup of nations.

Ghana has a chance to outwit the Zambians, by scoring them when they meet in the leg return of their 2014 World Cup qualifier in Accra. After they lost one goal to nil in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. The last time that Ghana lost a home game, was against Cameroun in the 2008 African Cup of nations. This shows that the Ghana Blackstars are a force to reckon with when it comes to home games .The other team in Ghana’s group is Lesotho, who hasn’t been impressive so far.

Football is a game of win, lose or draw. Are we going to witness something dramatic at the end of the World cup qualifiers? Will Ghana qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time? Will Zambia qualify for the World Cup for the first time ever? All these questions will be answered by the end of the qualifiers because anything can happen on the way. 

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Extracts From The Secret Diary Of Nicklas Bendtner….

By Umid Dey.

August 18, 2012.

7 am. I wake up from sleep. The first things I see after opening my eyes everyday are posters of Nicklas Bendtner with a caption of ‘The Best In The World’ all around my room.

I wake up pleased. Everyday.

But today, I was extra-pleased because tonight my Club Arsenal will be playing Real Madrid – one of the best teams in the World – and I am going to be in the starting XI. Only a foolish manager would leave out his best player when his team is playing against the best team in the World.

August 19, 2012.

I was too tired to write about last night’s game last night itself; after all, I scored 5 goals against Real Madrid to help Arsenal win 5-4 after being 4-0 down at half-time. So I was tired; tired of carrying Arsenal on my back – but, they don’t call me The Great Dane for no reason.

I not only scored 5 goals, but I assisted 5 of them as well. I didn’t allow Szczesny to take goal-kicks because, if he did, the assists would have been his. So I took the goal-kicks myself by shooting the ball in the air and then running to reach the place where the ball would land, receive it, dribble past my opponents, and then score.

For my 5th goal, I actually told my team-mates, including Szczesny, to stand in my way while I am dribbling so that I would dribble past all 21 players on the pitch and then score. And that’s exactly what happened: I dribbled past 21 players, then went past the referee, then nutmegged my own self by slowly pushing the ball and quickly standing in front of it to let it roll between my legs and then scoring.

I went past all 22 players on the pitch – including myself – and 23 men to score the greatest goal of all time. Only Nicklas Bendter can go past Nicklas Bendtner with the ball - I am just too awesome.

Once Mourinho said that 5-4 is a “disgraceful” score-line in a 11v11 game and that he sends his players back to the dressing rooms, as they are not defending properly, if the score-line reaches 5-4 in a 3v3 training match. I wonder what he did to his players last night after they conceded 5.

They once conceded 5 against Barcelona, too, but conceding 5 against Barcelona and conceding 5 against a team that has Nicklas Bendtner – the best in the World – in it is 2 very different things.

Barcelona didn’t have me – Nicklas Bendtner – so it’s not understandable to concede 5 against them. After all, who did Barca have in that game? Lionel Messi? Andres Iniesta? David Villa? Meh. These are players who are not even fit to tie the laces of my boots – you get these players in every street of Denmark.

However, last night was different. Real conceded against me. They should, and must, be happy that they were blessed enough to concede 5 against the best in the World. If Mourinho didn’t do anything to his players after they conceded 5 against Barca, then he must have partied last night after conceding 5 against me as he conceded way less than he expected.

Anyways, after the match, Wenger came to me and told that I was excellent and bla bla… the usual stuff to make me feel good. I don’t know what kind of an idiot he is because even after being with me for so many years, he doesn’t realise that I always feel good about myself, regardless of whether I get praised or not.

A reporter came to me and asked me how I felt scoring 5 against a great team like Real. I replied, “It was easy, a piece of cake. Scoring goals have always been as easy as walking in the park for me; whether it is against Real Madrid or any other team.” (I know that this is my diary and thus putting my own words in quotes may have baffled you, but guess what; this is cool – the guys you see doing the same with their tweets on Twitter or comments/statuses on Facebook got that from me. This is called ‘being awesome’.)

I went to the dressing room and got a hero’s welcome. The new guy Cazorla came to me and said that he never had a team-mate who made such good use of his passes. I replied to him, “that’s because you never had Nicklas Bendtner as your team-mate”. (Again, I’m being awesome.)

Now you must be wondering when did Arsenal play against Real Madrid. They played Sunderland on August 18, not Real Madrid, you must be shouting in your head.

Well, that’s in your inferior Universe – the Universe which everyone sees. In your Universe, Arsenal played Sunderland and drew 0-0. But in that superior Universe, Arsenal played Real Madrid and I scored 5.

That superior Universe is located in a blissful place called ‘The Mind Of Nicklas Bendtner’. You have to be Nicklas Bendtner to see what is happening in that Universe and God has made just one Nicklas Bendtner – and that’s me – so only I can see that Universe. No-one else can.

So all of you mere mortals: be pleased by being and seeing this inferior Universe and I, on the other hand, will be owning that superior Universe by my breath-taking, jaw-dropping and eye-popping Football skills – and you won’t be able to see that.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA,” I laugh at you all.

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Note: This is just a satirical article and isn't Nicklas Bendtner's real diary - this is just intended for fun purposes and not to offend Bendtner or anyone mentioned in this article.

Why African Football Needs To Change For The Good For A Brighter Future...

By Patrick Owusu.

Africa has got in abundance many talented footballers but there is lack of recognition of our various leagues and tournaments.  This is because of the habitual movement of our players to Europe and other parts of the world, the moment they make a name for themselves.

African players move abroad because of money and fame. We can’t even keep our star players in our own country in other for them to play in our leagues, so that we will develop and gain recognition like other leagues in Europe [La liga, EPL, Ligue 1, Serie A, and etc].  The players move to Europe because they are not paid well in Africa .There is also no good insurance packages for our footballers.

Another major problem is lack of advertisement and also low level of patronage by us the Africans. We don’t invest and patronize our league. Africans spend too much time watching European and other parts of the world’s leagues. Most Africans even support teams in Europe whereby they don’t support any team in Africa.

Even shops that sell jerseys in Africa, patronise the selling of foreign jerseys more than our local teams jerseys. And also most of our journalists take much time and joy in talking and debating of foreign Football news on the radio and television sets. They, therefore, also give the masses the chance to phone in on live Football programs to give their ideas about foreign issues mostly than local issues. This means that publicity of our game is very low.

Also, we lack the facilities that will help make the game interesting and a joy to watch. Many young and upcoming footballers even lack sports wears to help them play football. Our football fields are not good enough to play the game of football on and this really doesn’t help us to really enjoy the game very well. A farmer can’t weed without using a good cutlass and the same applies to football, whereby we can’t play the game by not using good and recommended facilities.

Our players don’t wear quality team jerseys during matches. Also during training sections, our players don’t wear uniformed bibs or jerseys to show the particular team they are training for. Most of our coaches also don’t have a specific training routine program to follow daily.

Management of African football is very poor. Bribery and corruption is killing our game. The right people are also not given the mandate to manage our Football because of favoritism and nepotism. This all because of our selfish interests. Most of our football administrators are not qualified and are corrupted. Some of our coaches are still used to playing the old way of football rather than the new way of football, which is all about tactics.

Most of the teams in Africa don’t have good medical personnel because they can’t finance them.  The teams also don’t have lucrative sponsorship deals to help the administrators to finance their teams very well. Most of the players too are tactically indiscipline and this has hindered the beauty of our game. The rules and regulations of football in Africa are weak and need to be strengthened to make the game very disciplined and a joy to watch.

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Why Cristiano Ronaldo Deserves To Win The Ballon d'Or Ahead Of Messi This Year

by Nour Sedki.

Two of the best...

Well, that's the big debate. It's the debate that possibly divides fans the world over. What remains is the question: Who's better, Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo or Barcelona star Lionel Messi? Firstly, I would like to say this article will not certainly settle that debate as fans' opinions are so solidified at this point that I doubt any article could.

While Messi may be more beloved and has better stats overall in 2012 as things stand, I'm one of those objective writers whom are of the opinion the Portuguese attacker fully deserves to snatch this year's Ballon d'Or award. It's quite true Messi notched a staggering amount of goals last season, surpassing the mark of 70 strikes for club and 80 if taking national team goals into consideration. 

The Defending Champion

One could suppose Messi has no opponents to square off against for this year's award considering he had completed the greatest individual season of all time, but what most people are yet to realise is that team performance counts when talking about the Ballon d'Or. 

Saying that Barcelona struggled as some of their key players were injury-prone for nearly half of the season and Messi had to carry an off-form Barcelona side to glory all by himself undoubtedly makes sense. As shown statistically, if we take out Messi's 50 league goals, Barcelona would have ended up at 6th place, which proves how important Messi has been for Barcelona. And while Ronaldo had Higuain and Benzema on his side with both scoring 25+ goals, it was a lot easier for him to get the job done. 

However, one could also argue Ronaldo has been the most decisive player in club football this year. Even though he had teammates uninjured and creating chances for him to score, we have witnessed a more unselfish and less individualistic Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Taking team performance into account, Ronaldo led Real Madrid to their first league title in four year after racking up 46 goals in La Liga over 60 in all club competitions. Moreover, Ronaldo had silenced 95% of the people who previously criticized him for not scintillating in the most crucial games, the 'Big Games'. Ronaldo, unlike rival Leo Messi, proved decisive for Real as he produced several match-winning displays that have helped the Whites through all competitions - i.e: v (Barcelona, Bayern, Betis, Valencia, Lyon, Atletico Madrid, Rayo Vallecano,..etc) Ronaldo showed up when it mattered most for his side, something the Argentine phenomenon couldn't do.

Another thing people seem to forget nowadays is that the Ballon d'Or is given based on the player's performances throughout the calendar year, and not the season, so all what will be taken into consideration are Ronaldo and Messi's plaudits back from January the 1st until the 31st of December. Thus, statistically speaking, the pair share the same amount of goals (64) whilst the Argentine currently has more assists (21) compared to Ronaldo's (15). 

But what really gives the Portuguese the edge is his impressive performances at the Euros with Portugal. 

Carried Portugal On His Shoulders...

Ronaldo got off to a poor start following two lackluster showings respectively against Germany and Denmark, but then produced the goods since taking the Seleccao further than expected - the semifinals of the tournament. Ronaldo scored thrice and ended up being the top scorer of the tourney along with five other players. Portugal have unfortunately got eliminated at the hands of eventual winners Spain, on penalties, in which Ronaldo could not take a single spot-kick. 

Ronaldo then traveled to France and Thailand with future wife and current girlfriend Irina Shayk as part of his short two week vacation. He returned to training on the 28th of July, hoping for a great start to the new season in order to win trophies with Real Madrid. 

Real kicked off their La Liga title defence with poor performances against Valencia and Getafe as Real drew 1-1 against Los Che and suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Getafe after a late goal from Barrada. Ronaldo afterwards showed why he truly deserves this year's Ballon d'Or when he was integral in Madrid's conquest of their first Supercup since a long time following a 2-1 victory over eternal rivals, FC Barcelona, where he scored a goal each in both legs. Ronaldo unquestionably outplayed Pique and his charming displays might have overlooked Messi's during that game.

Cristiano Celebrating His Goal Against Barca

Ronaldo obviously has a very good chance at scooping this year's prize from rival Lionel Messi. Reasons in short are because his dragging of Portugal to Euro Semis after scoring three crucial strikes, he helped Real Madrid secure their first La Liga title since 2008, he showed up when it mattered most and was arguably this year's most pivotal player. 

And that's why he deserves the Ballon d'Or more than Messi.

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