No easy race to Brazil glory
It's 23 days more to the finish line at Brazil 2014, yet the world is attesting to the fact that it's not going to be an easy race to the ultimate glory for any country.
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Some countries had gone to Brazil 2014 assuming that their status in world football was enough guarantee to see them in serious contention for the global diadem.
The world too had made its own calculation as to which countries had the capacity to reduce the race to one fit only for the finest.
However, it took only the opening games of some of these countries to disabuse their minds of any such false sense of security.
Their sweet dreams turned into nightmares in a manner that beggared understanding. Spain suffered the most humiliating defeat of any reigning champion in the history of the World Cup when they were beaten 5-1 by the Netherlands.
In other wake-up calls, Costa Rica, with no claim to an enviable football history, humbled Luiz Suarez's Uruguay 3-1. The thunderous cheers that greeted this result among Ghanaians only underscored the pain that had done so much damage to Ghanaian hearts as a result of Suarez's hand of Satan “murder” of Ghanaian and African hopes at South Africa 2010.
We were all grateful to Costa Rica for exacting such sweet revenge for us.
Brazil and Argentina “struggling” to beat Bosnia & Herzegovina in their opening matches only resonated with the message of how unpredictable Brazil 2014 is going to be.
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As for Ghana's painful defeat to the United States last Monday, the least said about it, the better.
The gods were not against us; we were against ourselves on account of how we went into this match. Poor selection, poor substitutions, loss of focus and lack of an admirable fighting spirit caused our undoing.
At Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010, the Americans outclassed us in the two matches, yet we overpowered them because we were very hungry for victory. That was the defining spirit.
Last Monday saw the Black Stars dominate the Americans throughout the game, but at the end of the day all the boasting rights belonged to the US team because they knew what to do with even half and quarter chances. They simply were on a mission to accomplish.
Based on what we saw of the Stars against the US last Monday, it would take something out of the ordinary for the Ghanaians to triumph over Germany tomorrow and Portugal on June 26. There is no way the two teams will succumb to an opposition that lacks quality when the occasion calls for nothing less than that.
Even at this stage of Brazil 2014, it can be said with a fair amount of certainty that the tournament may in the long run, pale against the glamour and excitement that South Africa 2010 provided in abundant measure.
One can only hope that as the tournament wears on, whatever the fans are lacking now will be found in great measure.