“When you wear the Ghana shirt, you have to die, you can’t wear it and not want to die,” right-back Samuel Inkoom, who made his World Cup debut in 2010, told ESPN in June 2020. Ghanaians had taken to calling the team the ‘One-Goal Project’, which might sound like a lofty mission for unified hope, but was actually a sarcastic jibe referencing how the Black Stars hadn’t scored more than one goal in any match - aside from that friendly against Slovenia - all year, nor had they won any matches in which they conceded first. They then lost 4-1 to the Netherlands and only managed a last-minute goal against Latvia to salvage a 1-0 win before travelling to South Africa. That news came on the same day as a 2-0 tune-up win in a friendly against Slovenia, the first of three they had scheduled before the World Cup started. Then 32 nd in FIFA’s world rankings - only sixth best among African teams - Ghana announced on May 27 that midfielder Michael Essien, the team’s best player, wouldn’t be fit for the tournament having suffered hamstring and knee injuries months earlier. It was the only one that carried as much expectation as it did optimism.īy the time the tournament kicked off in South Africa, Ghana’s bus slogan felt more like a cruel joke. “The hope of Africa.” It was the only one that invoked the spirit of not just a single country, but an entire continent. They ranged from the charmingly cheesy (New Zealand’s “Kickin’ it Kiwi style”) to the vaguely morbid (Slovenia’s “With eleven brave hearts to the end”), but Ghana’s transport rallying cry was particularly unique. All rights reserved.Ī month before the 2010 World Cup began, FIFA announced the different slogans that would adorn the team buses for each of the 32 participating nations. From the book From the Jaws of Victory: A History of Football’s Nearly Men compiled and edited by Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald.
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