Ghana national football team

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The Ghana national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, is the national association football team of Ghana and is controlled by the Ghana Football Association.

Although the team did not qualify for the senior FIFA World Cup until 2006, Ghana have enjoyed tremendous success on the youth level, winning the World Under-17 title twice, and finishing second at the World Youth Championship twice as well. The team have won the African Cup of Nations four times (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the second most successful team in the contest's history, together with Cameroon, after Egypt won a fifth title in 2006.

In 1957, Nkrumah, the first prime minister of an independent African nation, thought that if he sent his message of a united Africa through football, then it would help not only the independence of Ghana, but the independence of Africa as a whole. Until he was removed from power by a coup in 1966, Nkrumah used football as a tool to depict how strong Africa and Ghana could be. The sport became well supported and this led to Ghana becoming one of the most powerful footballing nations in Africa.

Unfortunately, Nkrumah's fall from power resulted in Ghanaian football losing its status as best on the continent and it was only in the late 1970s that Ghana began to show a return to their previous form. Perhaps the most impressive performances in Ghana's football occurred in the later 1980s and 1990s, thanks to the country's youth teams.

In qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2006, Ghana lost their opening match to Burkina Faso, but went on to win all nine of their remaining matches, conceding only four goals in total during the qualifiers.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1958 - Did not enter
• 1962 - Did not qualify
• 1966 - Withdrew
• 1970 to 1978 - Did not qualify
• 1982 - Withdrew
• 1986 to 2002 - Did not qualify
• 2006 - Round 2

African Nations Cup record

A Ghana fan roots for his team before the 2006 World Cup match against Italy.

In their World Cup debut, Ghana competed in Group E of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The group, which also contained Italy, Czech Republic and the United States, became dubbed the Group of Death by some[link] as each team had the ability to decide their own fate going into the final set of games.

Ghana started with a 2-0 defeat to Italy. However, they bounced back with a shock 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic. They followed this with a 2-1 victory over the United States of America, to finish second in Group E and continue through to the next round along with Italy.

Ghana's unlikely run ended when they met World Champions Brazil in the second round. Influential player Michael Essien was banned from the match for his two yellow cards earlier in the tournament. Despite all of this, Ghana put up a fight, surprising many with several near goals. In the end, Brazil won 3-0, although there was some controversy over the first two goals. The third came when Ghana had Asamoah Gyan sent off.

Ghana was the only African side to advance to Round 2 of FIFA World Cup 2006 (Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Angola, and Tunisia were all eliminated in group play), and the sixth nation in a row from Africa to progress beyond the group stages of the World Cup.

Ghana is the only team competing in the 2006 World Cup finals to have every member of their squad playing for a different club side (except for Muntari and Gyan who were both at Udinese), with most competing in Europe's top leagues. They are also the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of 23 yrs and 352 days.

Because of Ghana's perfomances in the tournament, they have been given praise for their continuous efforts to push forward and their attitude, which seems fearless of any team. Top European teams have noticed many of their players, one of whom is Sulley Muntari, and others such as Stephen Appiah and John Mensah have been credited also.

Head coach: Ratomir Dujkovic

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Notable players

• Abédi Pelé Ayew
• Tony Yeboah
• Nii Lamptey
• Prince Polley
• Michael Essien
• Samuel Kuffour
• Stephen Appiah

External links

• [Ghana Football Association] - official website
• [Ghana Black Stars Live]
• [Ghana World Cup news]
• [Ghana team profile & World Cup 2006 qualification overview]
• [Ghana World Cup 2006 Match Reviews]

Footnotes