Nigeria vs Ghana

After the World Cup of 2006, Ghana made a major impression of the football world. Since the tournament, they have gone undefeated in exhibition matches. They have a new coach, a few new players, and are continuing in their winning ways.

The post-World Cup matches were against Australia, Japan and South Korea. While these are all strong teams, they had night played against any teams with a history of rivalry; that was until last night.

As the hosts of the upcoming Cup of African Nations, set for January 2008, the pressure has been on Ghana’s squad, the Black Stars, to succeed.

That brings us to the match against Nigeria that was played in London last night. The two teams have been playing against one another for 40 years, and Nigeria has beat Ghana in every meeting since 1992. This fact left for a divided predictions about the potential outcome of the match: some thought Nigeria would continue the streak (seemingly knowing how to handle the Black Stars), while others contended that football in Ghana has never been in such strong shape.

The match was set to begin at 7:45PM, however the opening kick-off didn’t take place until 8:20PM. Nigeria

was given the first touch, and also had the first opportunity to score; though, they did not capitalize on it.

For the first half, the ball moved more like a tennis match was being played that world class football; short runs ended in turnovers, and then became momentum for the other team. While both teams had a few chances, the half ended without any scoring.

Just as the play was back and forth, so was the banter. Kweku was at the house and was insisting that Nigeria was going to embarrass Ghana. I was arguing with Kweku, as we both used botched opportunities, or close chances to justify our opposing stances. Mr. Ackerson gave silent approval in sniles and nods to my advocacy of the Black Star, while Micheal adding ad-libs to my arguments.

Kweku brought up the fact that Ghana had not beaten them since 1992 continually. Finally I told him “the 15 years will end in the 50^th anniversary – it’s the year of Jubilee”.

When the second half began, the momentum clearly shifted. Within five minutes, Ghanaian star Kingston had netted a long and low shot. Being that I had declared him as MVP of the game in the first five minutes of the match, I now had more weight behind my talk. Soon after that Munatari roofed another goal. We celebrated. It was just then that Mama Ackerson came into the door and joined the fun. Kweku, has holding his head a little lower, but was still confident that Nigeria was in the game.

Ten minutes later Junior Agogo, the player that I called to score next got a goal on a beautiful finish. The talk continued as we danced and laughed around the living room. Kweku contended that, “Nigeria is going to score them”. I replied, “three goals??? The match is 90 minutes, not 900 minutes”.

With Ghana dominating the match, a Nigerian striker made his way to the net and stumbled between two Ghanaian defenders. This resulted in a penalty kick for Nigeria. I won’t comment on whether it was deserved or not, because my comment will be biased.

While Nigeria sought to get back into the game, a few scoring chances from Essien, Appiah and Munatari led the way for a goal by a late sub taking who replaced the goal scorer Junior Agogo.

And that was the final score 4-1. While the match was exciting, the rivalry will see another chapter early next year, when the continents strongest squads converge across Ghana. The nation is looking forward to the tournament with the reasonable expectation of taking the championship.