Source: Daily Guide newpaper
For football fan-atics like myself, the World Cup is panning out to be deliciously interesting. All expected outcomes are not coming to pass and there have been surprises abundant. The drama is never-ending and its even reaching soap opera-esque dimensions.
Here are some delightful headlines:
Not only is it drama-filled but it is (supposedly) our time...Africa's world cup. The fact that the Black Stars remain the only African team in the actual competition may make it hard to believe that it is indeed the time for the continent. Currently, our Stars have the incredible burden of the whole of Africa on their shoulders. It has been an absolute delight getting emails and text messages from friends all over the continent and the world declaring their support for the Black Stars. I just heard that Kenyans are flying Ghana colours and it appears South Africans are affectionately referring to the Black Stars as "BaGhana" - a witty take on their not-so successful football team "Bafana Bafana". Of course in the case of South Africa, we have to contend with the fact that as soon as we lose Ghanaians will probably be back to being not-so affectionately referred to as "Makwerekwere" (derogatory SeSotho/SeTswana term used to refer to Black African foreigners in South Africa).
Back to the Ghana-Uruguay encounter slated for tonight. Is there hope? Could Ghana be trailblazer in Africa yet again? Is it really "Our time" ?
BBC Focus on Africa magazine July - September 2010 edition
**Fever Pitch: Okay so I borrowed the phrase from Nick Hornby 1992 novel of the same title which apparently is an autobiographical account of his lifelong love / obsession with (my beloved) Arsenal football club (The Gunners!). Fever Pitch was later made into a movie starring Colin Firth in an unforgettable lead.
11 comments:
Very insightful.. Love the "curse of the Nike advert". Very eyecatching indeed..
Today's match is gonna be a tight one but i'm hoping the Black Stars sail through easily...
Oh.. and talking about Fever Pitch, did you know that there was another remake starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon? Interesting movie...
Thanks Enyonam! Yes, I saw bits of the American Fever Pitch on a plane as I floated in and out of sleep. Quite a good movie but I did not like it because I really liked the original and I'm not into baseball at all!
as for me i want the Ghana kicked out!!! indeed i want the ass of Ghana to be kicked bcos i'm afraid that leadership would not handle the victory properly. but at the same time i'd love to see people jubilate over the victory in the streets; going naked and all; lovely sights those. but i still want to black ass, oops! black stars i mean, kicked out!!!
I believe we will win. I just hope so. It would be a difficult game but we have done it before and would do it again. We have been the first in many things and we hope this would be added to our lists of 'firsts'.
@Novisi... I don't mind whether the authorities would handle it well or not. I don't even care about what they would say. It can even turn into a political debate and political campaign (I won't fall for that, I know) I don't care. All I care is that Ghanaians would win and be happy and forget their problems at least for a day or two and that would be refreshing.
@Nana F-A,
lol. i see you are really in the mood! enjoy it all.
...alas, it was not meant to be
@ Abena Serwaa. Cute pic. You should have been at the game to distract the Uruguay goalie during the penalties.
You would have made one of those headlines too. :-)
@Novisi: well, your dream came true. I can't believe you wanted Ghana kicked out because you had fears about how the leadership would handle the victory! The success of the Black Stars had more to do with our national pride and for once we were a completely united people who were extremely proud to call ourselves Ghanaian. We were the hope of the entire African continent. Just for once Africa, was actually united. United behind the Black Stars.
@N-FA In the end, winning was actually a possibility. As you said it was a difficult game but we overcame...well, almost!
@Sel, indeed it was not meant to be. We were sooo close and the boys represented us to the best of their abilities. They were on fire!
@Mike: *LOL* Thanks for flattering comments...my head is about to swell to encompass the whole room!
Alas, with two Uruguayan goalies playing at once, the odds were really against us!!
@Abena,
oh yeah! but i wanted them kicked out very fairly. i have never doubted the potential of the black stars and i feared they would win the cup to our 'misfortune'.
i don't have a problem with anyone celebrating success in football but we have very serious problems to tackle. the football festival has an expiry date: the 11th of july. and if we are still found wanting dealing with small 'water-logs' called floods (compared to what happens elsewhere) then i believe it's better Ghana is kicked out.
As for the African unity thing i don't see the big deal. if this is the African unity that many desire then i feel sorry. i supported Cameroun in 1990 as an 'innocent' kid (without the knowledge of the 'apple') and i supported Senegal in 2000 but now i believe; apart from South Africa and Algeria all the other African countries needed to be out.
and the issue of Ghanaians becoming one bcos of this world cup too is a bit funny! i mean it's a 'pretense'. even while the black stars were playing we have had some of the most vile politicking in Ghana with usual actors facing off under the guise of ndc/npp.
we have had people claiming the president hallucinates. we have had some innuendos to the effect that some women 'prostitute' their way to power and wealth. even the tournament itself is divided b/n ndc/npp; with some ndc people claiming the success of the stars shows good work by govt.
so for me i see the kicking out of the stars as an opportunity for our leaders to get serious. and i want this to continue in the future till our leaders wake up. if the attainment of a last 16 berth at the 2006 world cup earned the team national honours then i really dreaded what winning the cup would 'misfortune' us in the face of all the wicked failures of leadership.
anyway, i'm becoming a 'talkative'. cheers!
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