MAD (?!!) FOOTBALL TALK: 2006 All Over Again, oh Ghana -- asks KOFI AMOAKO DUODU?

2006 ALL OVER AGAIN: POPULAR DEMAND VERSUS ‘PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH’ STILL WEEPING FOR GHANA AND BEKOE. By KOFI AMOAKO DUODU

Dearest maniac chieftains and unadulterated Fabulous addicts, it’s with great groaning of spirit that I write to you this day, and you can’t imagine the weight of the groanings of the ‘massive’ whose natural Ghanaian spirit can tell when we are being treated like ‘suckers’ and how can we survive when the strife is fierce and the warfare long, when we obstinately rebel against what we know in our souls to be true. Who told you that you have any striker worth his salt that you lied to Heaven and Eart and to your own soul that you were so spoilt for choice you could even contrive to think you had the luxury of dropping Eric Bekoe? You go get Bekoe?
And look how they feel so cool and don’t know that this travesty of justice shall notbring bad repercussions, as sure as I pray to Jah Big Lord, they and them that took part in it , to constrict the high ideals ‘Osagyefo Doctor’ instilled in us, to tell us to our faces that we who clamoured for better strikers in 2006 by telling them to include Armando and Boakye and they were impervious to sound advice and what did Nyantakyi say on arrival from ‘Germano’ ‘bla,bla,bla, and WE MUST GET COACHES FOR OUR STRIKERS’ and I shouted back at the tele ‘what the blooming hell did you think the ‘popular demand’ was howling about?’
Yes the ill-will executed against this youth who is truly beloved of the people , the ill-will shall bounce back to ‘’they and them that take part in it, who make I man blood flow through a River Jordan,’ Jah will raid them with much more ill-will, pressed down and running over, the wicked shall by no means go unpunished. We’ve been sold out for in this war- time we’re in, it is tantamount to treason, for withholding your terrible missile in wartime and taking rubber bullets to war is treason of the highest order and Jah shall judge this matter; everyone say, ’judgement shall go on’!.
This week the whole town caught ‘Nkrumalitis’ and I say to my friend, ’when Ghana lines up on June 13th before the whole world, Kwame Nkrumah’s children shall have 2 Serbs on our bench as we play Serbia and what signall does that send in 2010, I mean all the ‘conscious’ folk world-wide would know us to be empty barrels making most noises and blind as bats and what do you think Osagyefo’s opinion would be?’
Those of us who know the best players capable of full elasticity, who can bludgeon their way to the trophy, sound like megalomaniacs , the Utopian rejects cannot conjecture in their soul and psyche how Ghana can win the world cup, and are on a making up the numbers trip, and have forgotten how Black Satellites survived the 10 against 11 scourge the Brazilians unleashed and these Adiyiahs, Agyeman Badu’s, Inkoom’s , Dede Ayew’s, and ‘keeper Dan Adjei wrote us a new script, and when Africa is hosting the mundial, it almost looks obscene to even think we could win, we are considered as megalomaniacs by the mediocre fringes of our society ,who are not apostles, high priests and outright prophets of the beautiful. We don’t even know who we are and how Africa looks up to us to ‘do the job for them’.
Now, as bad as dropping Bekoe is concerned, the evil’s already done and we have to put our faith in things that glitter but certainly aren’t gold, and these subtle deceptions have been the downfall of many a team. Now listen to these 3 tales.
In 2002, in theJapan /Korea world cup, Jamaica had this handsome well-built ‘keeper with his nice gold chain and all and they got whacked 5-1 by Argentina, lost the next game and then faced Japan in the last group match. I had noticed that the ‘keeper was a fake, not the real deal, but ruling with an imposing countenance, every one say ‘thick, tall, meanwhile nothing’, yes in this last match they used their reserve ’keeper and come and see this shortie leftie Kingston cat. Lord have mercy, nothing went past him and I really enjoyed that game which Jamaica won 2 nil. When those 2 ‘keepers stand side by side you will be instantly in love with the imposing ‘fine boy’ but you’ll understand what it means to say ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’, you’ll understand the words’ looks are deceiving, don’t underrate no man’ oh, remember tall handsome Siimon Addo, who kept goal for Abedi and Yeboah was just the same; ,Anthony Osei Kwadwo of Asante Kotoko fame , who saved 4 penalties in the ’93 Africa cup final against Zamalek, those of us with angel eyes knew Osei was far better but Osei wasn’t so tall and imposing and this loophole would tell on us, but hey, don’t expect everyone to be on your wavelength.
What soccer hasn’t Steven Oduro played in this Ghana land from Kaladan to Oseikrom to Accra, don’t we know he does things which even Essien and Appiah are too stiff and bulky to do, but because he’s smallish, he can spin around so effortlessly and one time at the Ohene Djan Stadium he gave this pass that hovered on the touch line, curled back into play and waited for his mate and I had vim to taunt the Phobian stronghold boldly shouting in Ga, ‘ do they pass like this in Black Stars?’ and every one had to watch me quietly. When have the smart Alecs ever called Oduro for national duty? Even at Kotoko, Coach Bash couldn’t solve that riddle and didnt his toying with our talisman cost him his job.
How tall were Maradona, Osei Kofi and Opoku Afriyie? If you are not smart these types of things can mislead you to perdition. A next unimposing champion was Sam Ayipey another petite genius who played on Kotoko’s right wing that day in ’87, when we came from a goal down to mash Zamalek of Egypt 5-1, yes this guy was super and once I made so much noise for him after a Ghana /Liberia match in Accra and though he was named in the next squad to Monrovia, one Fiifi Eshun got the jersey and I could go on but right now in this modern day a similar deceptive situation has arisen with an additional dimension which has dribbled Milo and company.
In Angola was it not the Egyptian National team that outplayed all the Chelsea and Inter Milan , Dutch League as well as French league super-dupers? Yes with only 3 foreign players their local boys won the trophy and yet the smart-alecs’ don’t want to respect Eric Bekoe who plays in the same league with Gedo and Hosni ‘thems’ .
Weren’t Eto’o and Drogba there and yet we downplay the quality of the Egyptian league and let Matthew Amoah’s Dutch label as well as Prince Tagoe’s Hoffenheim German labels to glitter in our eyes and yet in real terms, Eric Bekoe is leaps and bounds ahead of them in ability to deliver and -- that ignorant disrespect must cease.
When Prince Tagoe stands next to Eric Bekoe you’ll see him taller than Eric, with his hair nicely braided with his nice ebony complexion and you will instantly judge a book by its cover. And truly, Tagoe is tall, handsome and imposing, but cannot shoot expertly with both feet and is a square peg in a round hole; and Amoah is far below Bekoe; and I know how Adiyiah will have to deliver us should Gyan take a serious knock’; but as for Amoah and Tagoe -- forget them.
Is this the improvement on 2006? Who do we think we’re fooling? None but ourselves.
And on that day, my words shall be sweet in your ears but it would be too late and we shall pray to God and being a merciful God He shall give us a third of the allotted measure we’d have received if we hadn’t sold out.
Let’s hope Quincy is not omitted or I’ll be forced to be an Argentinian, so help us Jah.