2014 World Cup Preview: Ghana

Published on: 24 March 2014
2014 World Cup Preview: Ghana
Ghana up against the odds again at the 2014 World Cup

By Niloufar Momeni

Ghana, the African superheroes have another World Cup ahead of them in 2014 and sure enough they have a big challenge awaiting them in Group G.

Drawn with Germany, Portugal and the United States and vying for one of the top two spots.

The Ghanaian's are not shy of facing top guns; after all, back in World Cup 2010, they managed to secure a place in the top two spots of their group at the expense of Serbia and Australia.

Later on defeating the United States to reach quarter finals and become only the third African team to reach the World Cup quarter finals.

The Black Stars have had successful records so far in all their world cup appearances since their second round appearance in World Cup 2006 and quarter final appearance in 2010 and they are hoping to repeat their 2010 World Cup record at the very least.

Now coached by Kwasi Appiah, their former assistant coach in the past decade, they had qualified to 2014 World Cup with great anxiety.

Having had to face Egypt, Africa’s stronghold, they managed to defeat them 7-3 on aggregate to book their Brazil tickets with festivities.

Although their list of friendly games may not look sufficient, but Appiah’s men have enough playing experience in top five European leagues to face any challenge at World Cup games.

Ghana have played Montenegro already, and are set to face Holland in May.

A technical team with high stamina complimented with a respectable average age of 25 among squad players, they are also proud of their experienced players plying their trade in top leagues of Europe.

Amongst 21 squad players, 11 of Ghana's players play in the first division of either Germany, France, Italy, England or Spain.

The rest save for one, play in Belgium, Holland, Greece, Russia and the Middle Eastern leagues.

In Group G of 2014 World Cup games, apart from Germany with absolute certainty to advance to the second round, Ghana national team could pose serious threat to Portugal and USA’s dreams of runner-up spot.

Key players:

Asamoah Gyan: Ghana’s Captain had a scoring spree at 2014 World Cup qualifying games and is one of the key players of the squad. His quick-thinking and scoring techniques make him one of the Ghanaians to watch out for.

Kwadwo Asamoah: Playing as Central midfield for Ghana, but left midfield at Juventus, he has pool of skills to shine at World Cup. His decent shots, good dribbling, solid passing have all made him a nickname of “younger version of Essien” in his country.

Michael Essien: Although he has aged and is not a shooting threat in midfield as he once was, he remains an aggressive midfielder with great stamina.

Andre Ayew: Olympique Marseille’s winger is now one of the backbones of the French team. Extremely talented with good eye for the net, he was named Ligue 1’s Young Player of the Season, and BBC Player of the Year in 2011.

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