It gladdens our heart that the senior national team, the Black Stars, have made it through the next stage of the 2019 AFCON competition, after a rather slow start that soccer fans appeared impatient to bear.
The Stars thrashed the African Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau 2-0, at the ongoing 2019 AFCON, in Egypt.
Their efforts in qualifying for the knock out competition is highly commendable, but we still urge them on to step up their game to separate themselves from the ‘boys’ because as four times African champions, and regular participant in AFCON, they are certainly counted among the favourites to lift the cup.
Many were those who did not give the Stars the dog chance, in view of their slow start, and absence from the starting line of some players, who soccer enthusiasts feel must be given the starting role.
Soccer fans should not be begrudged because football is the passion of the nation, and people become very emotional when things do not go well with their national team, which is the embodiment of the spirit of Ghanaians.
But, we hasten to add that as our local proverb says that “we do not point to our father’s house with our left hand,”’ and we should avoid berating our ‘national asset’, especially when things do not go down well with us.
Indeed, Ghana football is not in normal times. It is our expectation that Black Stars will normalise our football, by winning the cup to rekindle our love for the game.
Ghanaian Times calls for high sense of patriotism in all our endeavours, take heart and accept in good fate when the unexpected happens to us.
We do not have to give up on our own. Patriotism demands us to continue to love our country for good and for bad. And when it is bad, we must offer constructive criticism to make it better.
The 2019 AFCON is toughening up, and at this point, no team will like to go home empty handed.
It will be rough, uncompromising, tougher and robust, but it is only the toughest that will get going.
We hope that the technical handlers of the Black Stars have gained a lot of experience in the competition so far, and would be able to map out strategies to contain any team that comes the way of our players.
Ghanaian Times urges the Stars on, and to go all out for the kill against their next opponent.
However, we hasten to remind them to play by the rules of the game to avoid attracting unnecessary cards from the referees.
At this stage of the competition, we expect the Confederation of African Football, the overseers of the tournament to be more vigilant on officiating so that we get the best of the competition and a worthy champion.
Ghanaian Times lauds the efforts of our officials, who are working tirelessly in the background, to maintain team spirit and high morale in camp.
Once again, we say well done to our Stars, but more room for improvement, the work has now started and we want the best of the team!