In January 2006, they were heavily criticized and condemned. By June 2006 they were national heroes and the toast of a proud nation.
Michael Oti Adjei (A sports journalist) was up close with the Black Stars in a year that started in disgrace before ending in ultimate triumph.
2006 has to be easily one of the most roller coaster years for Ghana football. There were painful defeats, nervous moments, bitter debates and angry exchange of words, the demonisation of players and ultimately glory for Ghana football and redemption for some of the most vilified men in the Ghanaian game.
Last two Sundays when Michael Essien scored that stunning goal to earn Chelsea a share of the points against Arsenal, you would have thought Ghana had equalized a goal.
There are many Chelsea haters but there were too many Ghanaians proud that a local had done it and that more importantly it was Michael Essien delivering the goods at the highest level.
If you rewind the months back to March 2006, there was no way you would have had that reaction. Then Essien was vilified. He was called unpatriotic and a few members of parliament eager to get in on what was then a fast moving bandwagon demanded he must never be allowed to play for Ghana.
In a sense the Chelsea man’s story from villain to hero in the year 2006 sums up the story of Ghana football in 2006.
The year begun with the traditional hope and anticipation. After all we were heading o the world cup for the first time, we had Michael Essien and Stephen Appiah and we had played some of the best football on the continent in the last year. Expectation was massive.
Not even the fact that Ghana had endured a miserable build up to the Nations Cup tampered with the belief. Defeats to Togo and Tunisia and the absence through injuries of key men Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan and ultimately Michael Essien should have sent the signal that all was not well with the team but we know how to be hopeful and confident and did.
When the tournament in Egypt opened, Nigeria deflated our ego with a deserved 1-0 win in Port Said before the team recovered to beat Senegal 1-0.
It was a sweet victory, the best way to shut up the likes of El-Hadj Diouf who had declared before the game that Ghana and the rest of the African contingent going to the world cup were the wrong teams.
It was sour grapes but Diouf’s point appeared to gain weight on the final day of the group stages. Needing to simply beat or draw with Zimbabwe to qualify for the quarter finals, the Black Stars made a complete hush of it.
Poor at the back, shambollic in midfield and toothless upfront, the team gave the worst performance I had seen of any Ghana national team in my brief moment as a sports journalist.
I sat in the press box of the Ismailia stadium that evening fuming, unbelieving that the game I had just seen, which had resulted in Ghana’s elimination at the hands of Zimbabwe was from a Nations Cup Ghana rightly expected to do well in.
The hopes of a Nation had been crushed and the reaction was an angry one. Stars coach at that time Ratomir Dujkovic knew what to expect at home. He declared that he had his bag ready and waiting to leave. The players were slaughtered by an unforgiving but not entirely professional media and the football association took its fair of the flack.
At the time it seemed the smartest thing to do was to fire Ratomir Dujkovic, the Serbian whose every remark during his stay here suggested he had little or no regard for us.
Yet the Serbian had powerful friends and sound excuses. He argued brilliantly in the heat of the post Nations Cup debate that he had gone to Egypt without too many players which was correct. Yet his unwillingness to accept that he made grave errors and didn’t act bold enough rubbed in too often.
But he had GFA chairman Kwesi Nyantakyi on his side and the body stuck by him with a clear mandate. Ensure this team does well at the world cup.
And how he delivered. Several members of the team that featured in Egypt were dropped. When the party was announced for Germany, there was no Prince Tagoe neither was there a Joetex Frimpong who had all been part of the team that had played in Egypt.
Also unlike the Nations Cup in Egypt, the team traveled to the world cup with a full strength squad and on the back of a string of fine results. There were draws against Turkey and Stuttgart, the German side. And then there were victories over Jamaica and South Korea.
Even better for the entire nation was that while the strikers were still not scoring goals, the likes of Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah and Sulley Muntari were playing some fantastic football. It looked good for the Stars but nothing could have prepared us for what happened in Germany.
In the build up to the tournament, every one I interviewed seemed to suggest that we would not be disgraced. There were exceptions though and it came from those who mattered most, the players.
On a meeting with Michael Essien, the Chelsea man, he looked pained by the flack he took after the nations cup and promised the world cup would be different and that Ghana could reach the knockout stages. I sat there not believing a word of the knockout thing.
And in our first world cup game, those of us who had said gaining respect was the main thing seemed to be getting it right. Ghana looked both solid and wasteful against Italy in Hannover before losing 2-0. It was a painful loss but one that did not in any way put the shine off the Black Stars.
At the team’s Maritim Hotel two days later when the team were holding the traditional pre-match press conference against Czech Republic, they looked confident. Essien declared they would just go there and play their game, Muntari said with nerves out of the way they were ready to play and win.
It took less than two minutes for us to realize that was not a mere boost. Asamoah Gyan’s stunning left foot volley beat Petr Cech and as he pointed to the sky in celebration, the Ghanaian contingent in the crowd went absolutely wild.
The moments of dominance afterwards only served to increase the excitement and with a 2-0 victory Ghana had won a world cup game. At the team’s base in Colonge, the players sang all night but there was still one game.
The United States of America had made the mistake of tagging Ghana the easiest opponent yet goals by the often maligned Haminu Dramani and Stephen Appiah sealed a famous victory. Ghana was in the second round of the world cup, we were doing Africa proud and next for us was Brazil.
It was a big draw yet they won thanks to tactical naivety, no potent strike force as always and the assistance of a certain Lubos Michel, the Slovakian referee. But that didn’t take away from the fact that Ghana had been brilliant at the world cup.
When the team arrived home back home, the reception was massive. We conferred the highest national honour on them and everywhere they were feted.
A year that had started in pain was ended in glory. But as they might well know by now in football you live on your results and while the pride of doing well at the world cup will stay with us for long, there will be many who will be looking for tangible signs of progress in the years to come.
The key games
23rd January Ghana 0 Nigeria 1
Ghana went to the Nations Cup expecting to do well but Taye Taiwo’s freekick winner five minutes from time meant the Stars started that competition on the worst note possible.
27th January Ghana 1 Senegal 0
With the pressure mounting, the Stars respond in style thanks to Matthew Amoah’s brilliant winner against Senegal.
31st January Ghana 1 Zimbabwe 2
Ghana looks set to make the quarter finals but get a shocking display sees the Stars lose by 2 goals to one. It means first round elimination for the Black Stars and a few months of incredible flack for the players particularly Michael Essien.
June 12th 2006 Ghana 0 Italy 2
It is Ghana’s first world cup game and the nerves show in everyone. The players can’t hold it back either and despite playing well, they go down to goals from Andrea Pirlo and Iaquinta who makes the most of a catastrophic Sammy Kufuor error.
17th June 2006 Ghana 2 Czech Republic 0
Ghana is up against the second ranked team in the world and everyone expects the Stars to lose. Instead they give a superb performance with goals from Asamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari. In addition, the side misses countless opportunities including a penalty. Best day for Ghana by far in the year 2006.
June 2006 Ghana 2 USA 1
Three points would guarantee Ghana a place in the world cup last sixteen at the first attempt and the Stars duly get that. First Dramani robs Claudio Reyna to finish beautifully after on 13 minutes but Clint Dempsey shoots the USA level. Then German referee Marcus Merk hands Ghana a penalty gift on the stroke of half time which Stephen Appiah tucks in. Another historic day for Ghana football.
June 2006 Ghana 0 Brazil 3
This is easily the result that didn’t tell the story at the world cup. Brazil makes the most of Ghana’s poor offside traps and referee Lubos’s ridiculous decision to beat the Black Stars. If only John Mensah’s header had not hit the head of Dida. Still it was a virtusso display by the Black Stars.
Hearts, Kotoko prove all is not rosy
When Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko started their African Cup campaign, there wasn’t much hope of any of them lifting the trophy yet no one would have expected the two to lose so meekly.
Apart from Kotoko’s wins over JSK and then Club Africaine, it seemed Ghana’s elite were just not good enough against the best from the continent. And coming just on the heels of the stunning display at the 2006 world cup that was difficult to swallow.
Hearts ended the competition without scoring a single goal and collected just one point in the process. Kotoko were abysmal against EL-Ahly losing 0-4 in the road and looked so inept away from home.
For a group of supporters so proud of their club sides and eager on any day to demonstrate that, the failure in the CAF champions league was particularly difficult to take.
In the end the men charged with overseeing the technical affairs of the two teams lost their jobs for a poor job done.
Oti Akenteng went first after Hearts of Oak had been totally outclassed and outscored by a rampant ASEC Mimosa. The coach had not even touched down in Accra before he was fired.
Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie lasted a bit longer at Kotoko but he was always losing his job after Kotoko’s amazing collapse in Cairo against El-Ahly. In a mere 30 minutes, the Porcupine Warriors were four down and the expression on Afranie’s face was of disbelief and shock.
But he hung on a bit longer until successive defeats in the local league triggered his sack.
For the two clubs, failure in the champions league hurt and not just for emotional reasons. They, by their failure to progress had failed to cash in on the richest club football competition on the continent.
The year under review also drove to the fore some home truths. Hearts and Kotoko in terms of administration, personel and on many fronts are falling fast from their high pecking as elites in the African club game.
Hearts have two African titles since 2000. Kotoko have played in two finals but their lack of quality in the champions league was so telling it was embarrassing sometimes.
There was a certain professionalism and class about the likes of Ahly, Orlando Pirates and ASEC that made Ghana’s top two look low grade.
Ghana also took its fair share of lessons from the champions league and they were vital ones too. The national football team isn’t the absolute measure of the state of football in Ghana.
While the best talent leave this country by the droves on a daily basis, it was clear from the champions league that we hadn’t devised a proper strategy to find their replacements.
And it also exposed the lack of wisdom in tearing down the Accra and Kumasi Stadiums without a contingency plan. Having to play so far away from home meant that Hearts in particular incurred massive financial losses on the road.
That in addition to their lack of bite on the field meant that a club that enjoys doing well on the continent was found wanting.
It was a sad way to drive home a certain point: while the Black Stars might be shinning, Hearts and Kotoko are struggling against the best on the continent. And it is easy to see a lot of that was self inflicted.