The Black Stars of Ghana’s bid to make a third successive Word Cup appearance was nearly marred last Friday night at the the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi following a blackout which saw their game against the Crocodiles of Lesotho been halted for close to an hour.
About 54 minutes into the game with Ghana leading the Crocodiles by 4 to nil, Senegalese referee, Badara Diatta had no option than to pause the match due to visibility difficulties on the field apparently as a result of the inability of the floodlights in the stadium to produce light because of system malfunctioning .
In a state of shock and wondering what had prompted the match official to suspend the match, both teams after some time on the field walked into their respective dressing rooms looking a bit disappointed and dejected in anticipation of what was to happen next.
After several minutes of waiting in vain for the situation to be resolved, several of the thousands of football fanatics who had trooped to the stadium to watch newly appointed stars coach, Kwesi Appiah’s first game in charge of the senior national team became angry and ignored the stadiums announcer’s call for calm as they started leaving the stadium.
However, power was resorted after an hour and the match continued to the amazement of everybody around including the president of the Ghana Football Association, Akwesi Nyantakyi who was earlier on seen devastated when the match was suspended.
From the restart, the Stars continued from where they had left off and added three more goals to complete a 7- 0 walloping of the minnows from South Africa with goals coming from stand in captain Suley Ali Muntari, Jerry Akaminko, debutant Christian Atsu as well as a brace each from youngsters Jordan Ayew and Dominick Adiyaa.
This win gives Ghana a bright start in their qualifying campaign to the next edition of FIFA’s World Cup to be hosted by Brazil in 2014. Ghana now face reigning African champions, the Zambia in their next qualifying match some few days to come.
Meanwhile in a quick response to the unfortunate incident at the Baba Yara Sports stadium, the Communication Director at the Presidency, Koku Ayidoho has assured Ghanaians that the Presidency was not happy with Friday evening’s occurrence and for that matter any body found responsible for this gross negligence will be punished accordingly. He made this claim on Joy FM and Peace FM .Two Accra based radio stations.
The last time a power failure was witnessed during a football in Ghana was in a group match between Mali and Benin at the Essipong Sports Stadium in Sekondi during the 26th edition of the African Cup of Nations held in Ghana in 2008 which saw the game been interrupted for 15minutes.
Checks indicates that the floodlights at he the Baba Yara sports stadium was functioning properly prior to kick-off so it therefore comes as a surprise that this embarrassing incident occurred at that crucial moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment