Africa should go back to the drawing board

That Ghanas Black Stars were, for the second edition running, the only African team to progress past the group stages of the competition, said everything about the stagnant state of the game on this continent. Before the showcase began, it was touted as Africas World Cup, with half of the continents six participants expected to at least make the first knockout stage.

Some respected voices even bravely predicted that an African team would reach the final and with some stroke of luck, lift the trophy. However, just three games in each group and Africa was exposed to be nothing but a dreamers wonderland laden with one-eyed optimists deaf to the trumpets of soccer development.

That is probably why most African stars had already joined spectators on their screens as they screamed their lungs out; rooting for the same men they should have still been sweating it out against on the pitch. And one wonders how long this sad state of affairs will last. For years Africa fought for more representation at the World Cup. But when FIFA obliged with six slots and home advantage for this years edition, we quickly turned those into five disappointments and one symbol of hope.

Just like most others that preceded it, the 2010 World Cup was, as soon as the final round of group matches was over, turned into a stinking graveyard freshly fed with bodies of African teams. Disappointment ran deep on African faces but for those, and there were many, who shifted their allegiance to one of the South American or European teams that followed tradition and dominated the tournament.

The most patriotic wept at the cruel spirit that turned the funny Bafana Bafana into being the first ever World Cup hosts to be ejected from their party in the first round, the beast that plucked the wings of Nigerias Super Eagles and caged the White Eagles of Algeria and the giant beast that dwarfed the mighty Elephants of Cote dIvore and dominated the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

Apparently, these monsters are all homegrown. While other footballing nations were sharpening the quality of their teams, most African nations focused more on bringing quantity to the showcase and gleaning money out of it than making a statement in it.

Just as some of the games legends put it week, African football administrators are, with their poor planning, responsible for the continents continued poor showing at the World Cup with Nigerias Austin Okocha, Marcel Desailly of Friance, Ghanas Abedi Pele and Englands John Barnes all united in that view.

According to Pele, most African nations still take the World Cup more as an event than a four-year process, while Okocha believes that the continent’s teams should have done more to invest in local coaches and young players for improved showings by the African teams.

“In Africa I don’t think we plan enough. We always wait for an event and then get ourselves ready for just that event,” said Okocha, the former Super Eagles skipper. He also had flak for some of the big name players, whom he said had failed to give it their all.

It’s about character. Our players have not shown enough passion. It’s an African tournament – we thought we could capitalise on that, but it didn’t happen that way, added Okocha. “I think the players failed to understand that they need to go that extra mile to be able to get results. They are not looking for the solution on how to win games. We now need to go back to our drawing boards and invest in youth and start planning.

Former Marseille, AC Milan and Chelsea defender, Desailly, expressed disappointment with especially Cameroon and Algeria, whom he accused of having made too many defensive blunders that derailed their campaign. “Even Ghana, for all their good showing, did not make the most of the opportunities that were put in front of them. South Africa played with great passion but the level of World Cup football has been too high for just passion to get them through,” Desailly said. However, some find it worthy that we pay tribute to the Black Stars of Ghana, who performed super-African and stuck it out when their colleagues had floundered.

It is in dark times that stars get a chance to shine and grace the sky and with all their colleagues falling at the first bullet, Ghana were presented with an opportunity they had no qualms in seizing.

Unstinting praise should go to the Ghana Football Association, which transformed a side that bowed out of the African Cup of Nations with a 2-1 loss to Zimbabwe just four years ago to World Cup quarter-finalists. Ghana were unconvincing at Egypt 2006, but the GFA administrators were jerked off their seats and barely six months later, the Black Stars recovered from a 2-0 loss to eventual champions Italy in their first match at Germany 2006, with a 2-0 win over the Czech Republic, then the worlds second best team and the USA 2-1 to progress to the second round of the World Cup.

Since then, the first team to win the AFCON four times began their ascendance back to the apex of the world football ladder. After a re-building exercise that began under French manager Claude Leeroy in September 2006, the Black Stars ended the 2008 AFCON placed third, after eliminating perennial rivals Nigeria 2-1 in the quarterfinals. They lost the semis 1-0 to Cameroon, but claimed third spot after defeating Cot dIvore 4-2 in the third place play-offs. In 2009, a youth development exercise meant to inject fresh blood into the senior national team resulted in Ghana being crowned African Under-20 champions, before they extended that dominance to the world with a 4-3 victory over Brazil after a penalty shootout in the final in Egypt.

Fast-forward the clock to 2010 and Ghana reached the AFCON finals at Angola 2010, narrowly losing 1-0 to Egypt. An intense blood donation programme had already begun from the Under 20 side to the Black Stars with Andre Ayew, Dominic Adiyiah, Kwadoh Asamoah and Jonathan Mensah having been introduced to bring new energy and dynamism to the side. Of the 23 players that fought it out in South Africa, fullback Hans Sarpei was the oldest at 34 and if he decides to follow in Fabio Canavaro or Paulo Maldinis footsteps, he will be there at Brazil 2014, should the Black Stars qualify.

The rest of the squad was made up of players with an average age of 22 years, their rising star, Andre Ayew is 20 years-old and the youngest squad member Jonathan Mensah, turns 20 years-old today. Needless to say, most of these players will be available for the next two or three editions of the Worlds biggest soccer fair.