Thursday, June 26, 2014

Dear Ghana

You have been a shining example of African football for so long. Why this circus now, when all eyes are on you? We knew that there was already problems when rumours of match fixing arose (this was not the first time match fixing allegations surround Ghana), and then the players threatening to go home unless 3 mio USD were paid. The Ghanaian government had to pay that money. The government of millions of hard working Ghanaians had to pay millions to a bunch of greedy guys for the honour of playing for their country.
Ghana, against Germany you showed that you were a world class team. But what will you show today? Amid controversy, conflict and greed, you are not the African team I would like to see in the next round. I want to see the happy, joyous country that Ghana is supposed to be.
Good luck Ghana. I hope you make it for your fans, but not for the greedy players and leaders representing you.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ghana is out - so it will be when you loose two of three games.

The interesting this for you Erik, is now to predict the "surprise" semi-finalist of the tournament.

Erik our time starts in 1974 (I was born on the very day when Germany surprisingly beat Germany 1:0). Since 1974 the six great countries - Germany (6 times), Brazil (5), Italy (5), France (4) Netherlands (4), Argentina (3) - have always taken at least two of the four spots in the semi-finals. Usually these six countries take three out of four spots, and in 1978 they were all there.

1978 is the exception from the rule - the great six (Netherlands who have not been world champion I doubt can really be called great) - the six contries always seems to let at least one surprise country through to the semi-finals, where that country then looses - again an exception to the rule: Spain in 2010 actually made it to the final and won it.

Never the less - every world cup seems to have its surprise semi-finalist:
2010: Spain and Uruguay
2006: Portugal
2002: Turkey and Corea
1998: Croatia
and so on...

Who will it be this year?
Potentially the semi-finals could be between the six great: Brazil vs Germany/France and Netherlands vs Argentina.
But at least one of the semi-finalist will be different from this - who will it be? Where will the surprise come from - give it a go Erik - looking forward for your prediction.
//jim

El Erik said...

Hi Jim,
it will be Switzerland or Belgium, as one of these will defeat Argentina (more unlikely, but could also be USA).
The only other possibility I see is Greece (defeat Costa Rica and then the Dutch).
E