Anyone who has ever set foot in a maternity ward or spent time in the company of a midwife will know what I mean when I say 'the waters have broken and the baby is on its way'.

That is precisely what happened when Ghana - a nation pregnant with expectation - played Uganda in their penultimate World Cup qualifier on 4 September in Kumasi.

Two goals from Michael Essien and Matthew Amoah secured a 2-0 win for the Black Stars. And going into this weekend's final round of qualifiers, I reckon any Ghanaian planning a party to celebrate the arrival of 'baby Germany 2006' is justified.

But like all first time mothers, Ghanaian football fans around the world cannot bear to wait. Many wish they could actually speed up the delivery process.

Of course, nothing much will happen until Saturday when the Black Stars get into the 'delivery room' in the Cape Verde capital, Praia.

And that leaves enough time for neutrals like me to remind my Ghanaian friends everywhere that in football, as in chess, you treat the seemingly insignificant teams with disdain at your own peril.

In chess, it is not always the case that the almighty queen or marauding bishops decide the outcome of the contest. The humble pawns may appear insignificant but can be just as potent.

Moral of this analogy? Simple. The Black Stars are within spitting distance of Germany but they must beware of the threat posed by Cape Verde - no matter how insignificant.

After all, the Black Stars have a history of struggling against supposedly inferior teams, and this partly explains why they have never shone on football's grand stage.

I am travelling to Accra this weekend to present two special editions of the BBC's African sports programme, Fast Track.

I very much doubt that the programme will focus on anything other than wild celebrations across this football-mad nation.

But not even the most optimistic Ghanaian could have believed that their national team would be in this position on the final weekend of qualifying for Germany 2006.

A line-up shorn of big names, lack of confidence in the Serbian coach Ratomir Dujkovic and a past littered with broken dreams left little room for hope.

There was also a lot of debate on whether the nation still had the quality to contend with the best in Africa.

But as we have seen in the last few months, the Black Stars are ready to shine again.

To me, as to probably many Ghanaians, there will be no greater mark of Ghana's resurrection as a football nation than for the Black Stars to qualify for next year's World Cup finals.

A word of caution though. I have never seen a black star - and no one else I know has. But strange things happen in football.


By: BBC Sport's Farayi Mungazi (Now in Accra)