ACCRA, July 3 — Football fans in Ghana have urged the country’s men’s national team, the Black Stars, to eliminate Colombia in their upcoming FIFA World Cup round of 32 clash to salvage the image of the African continent.
Despite an impressive group stage performance that saw nine out of ten African representatives qualify for the knockout stage, Morocco remains the only side from the continent to have advanced to the round of 16 so far.
South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, DR Congo, and Algeria have all been eliminated in the round of 32, while Egypt and Cabo Verde are expected to face Australia and Argentina, respectively, late on Friday.
Ahead of the Colombia-Ghana encounter, football fans in the West African country have urged their team to give everything to eliminate their South American opponents and join Morocco in making Africa proud.
Abudu Majeed, a 28-year-old die-hard Black Stars supporter, called on the team to learn from the mistakes of the African sides already eliminated from the tournament.
“Even though we know little about the Colombians, we have a team that can pull up a win against them. All I want is for the team to play above their capabilities and fully concentrate on the game, so Ghana can join Morocco in saving the face of Africa,” said Majeed.
Another fan, Mavis Amenu, expressed optimism Ghana would relive their performance from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and bring some excitement back to the continent.
“Ghana has done it before, and I know they will lift their performance to qualify for the next round of the competition by beating Colombia,” she said.
The four-time African champions, who edged Panama 1-0, drew 0-0 with England before losing 2-1 to Croatia in the group stage, will come up against Colombia at Kansas City Stadium in the round of 32 early Saturday.(Namibia Daily News /Xinhua)
