By P. E. Pentsil

 FOOTBALL

BLACK STARS HOLD THREE LIONS AT WEMBLEY

When on 29th September, 2009, in the land of the Pharaohs, Ghana’s Under-20 football squad, the Satellites, spanked their English counterpart 4-0 in their group match of the FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament, on their way to becoming World Undre-20 Champions, nobody thought that exactly 18 months later, on 29th March, 2011, the match that football loving Ghanaians yearn for, above all others – an England-Ghana encounter at the Senior level – would become a reality.

Many reasons account for the joy and enthusiasm with which the announcement of the England-Ghana match was received. Quite apart from our historical ties with Britain and the fact that the game of football was one of the prized colonial imports, English football league has, through television and radio, acquired a huge following not only in Ghana but also throughout the world. That is not all. Ghana’s own outstanding performances in the last two FIFA World Cup tournaments in Germany and South Africa have given the Black Stars such an enhanced image that many top football nations gladly welcome the opportunity to play against them.

But, perhaps. what gave Ghanaian football fans the confidence that the Black Stars would put up a good show against the Three Lions even at their famous Wembley Stadium, was the kind of form the Stars had just picked up under their new Coach Stevanovic and his assistant, Kwesi Appiah. In their two matches before the Wembley encounter, the youthful Stars overwhelmed Togo 4-1 in a friendly international, followed by their 3-0 thumping of Congo in Brazzavile in the more crucial African Nations Cup qualifier.

The impressive 4-1 and 3-0 score-line against Togo and Congo – a far cry from the miserable “one-goal strategy” that was, for some time, threatening to become the ‘trade mark’ for the Stars – also served to encourage Ghana football lovers to believe that the new-look Stars would surely tame England’s Lions.

On the historic Wembley match itself, attended by over 80,000 spectators including an estimated 20,000 Ghanaians, England started much the brighter side. With their fast, crisp passing game, they put a good deal of pressure on the Black Stars midfield line of Sulley Muntari, Kwadwo Asamoah and Anthony Annan. But much against the run of play, the Black Stars very nearly took the lead in the eighth minute when a quick counter attack saw enterprising striker, Dominic Adiyiah, in a very good position to score but shot feebly into the waiting hands of the goal keeper. Thereafter, the game became more open with England creating the better scoring chances. It did not, therefore, come as a surprise when in the closing minutes of the first half, an incisive move by England caught the Ghana defence off-guard, and Andy Carrol, the Liverpool striker, from the edge of the box, rifled the ball home to net his first goal for England.

If the first half of the game belonged to England, the second half clearly saw the Stars dictating the pace. The introduction of Derek Boateng, Daniel Opare, Dede Ayew and others also helped immensely to strengthen Ghana’s midfield and gave the team more attacking options.

But try as the Stars did to fetch a goal, the defence of the Three Lions stood firm until the very last minute, when it cracked. Asamoah Gyan, in a masterly display of ball control, zigzagged his way past three stranded (or, better still, mesmerized) England defenders and expertly placed the ball, left footed, just wide of the diving hand of England’s goal keeper, Joe Hart, for the much deserved equalizer that sent the 20,000 Ghanaians at Wembley and millions all over the world into a frenzy of joyous celebration.

What a goal to crown a night of a memorable and delightful football match! ∞