Imagine if a national football team were thrown together weeks before the World Cup and had only one training session before their opening match. That was the scenario facing the Ghana Black Stars, a five-a-side team that took part in last weekend's UAE Nations Cup, a tournament organised by Duplays, pitting country against country. "For football, I am meeting these guys for the first time," Salifu Alhassan, 35, said. He was added to the team through the Duplays website for the 48-team tournament, which featured 30 nations. "It was tough."
The Black Stars won two matches, lost two and drew one, failing to qualify for the knock-out stages of the 48-team tournament. Of course, Ghana's national team, who kick off their World Cup campaign in South Africa against Serbia on Sunday, had to come through a long qualifying campaign to be there and have played pre-tournament friendlies (they defeated Latvia 1-0 on Saturday night). "They will do much better," said Mr Alhassan, a computer engineer who moved to Abu Dhabi five years ago. "I think they will be OK."
Ghana, ranked 32nd in the world by Fifa, football's governing body, are making their second appearance at a World Cup; they were also among the final 32 in 2006 in Germany. The nation's hopes for a long run in the tournament have been dampened because Michael Essien, the midfielder who plays for the current Premier League champions, Chelsea, is sidelined with a knee injury. Yet Mr Alhassan is confident that the team will advance from Group D, just as they did in 2006. They were a surprise entry in the knockout stages that year from a group with Italy, the Czech Republic and the USA. "We hope to get out of the first round," he said. "We did the same in the last World Cup. With the US and Czech Republic, nobody thought we could make it."
"I don't see them to be in a tough group," added Kamal Deen Yakub, 26. "We do not fear at all. Now we have to show them very much." Mr Yakub is particularly looking forward to Ghana meeting Germany, because Kevin-Prince Boateng, who holds citizenship from both nations, will take to the pitch for Ghana. mchung@thenational.ae
