Are they Ghana do well? Who knows? We do actually, read the preview…
Top Man
In spite of not having much game time at club level, the 31-year-old Michael Essien remains one of the national team’s most influential players. As fans of the Premier League can testify, the midfield man certainly likes to maraud his pants off from box-to-box (it’s an official footballing term, trust us), and, if he can recapture some of the form that he showed during Ghana’s successful qualifying campaign, then the Black Stars may just put up more of a footballing fight than most people expect… including us here at JOE Towers.
Rising Star
Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, now aged 23, was part of the Ghana squad that won the Under-20 World Cup Final back in 2009, with the midfielder bagging the deciding kick in the penalty shoot-out against Brazil. He now plays his club football with Udinese in Italy and, towards the end of 2013, was linked with a move to Liverpool… but so was JOE’s granny so we wouldn’t pay too much attention to that.
Did you know?
You know that delicious purple Snack bar that you’re sitting down to enjoy with your scalding cup of tashty tea? Chances are that Ghana played a major role in its existence as Cadbury, according to an entirely reliable “source” on the Internet, imports 90% of its cocoa from the African nation.
We owe you Ghana, big time.
Reasons for Irish fans to support them
BECAUSE THEY GAVE US OUR PURPLE SNACK BARS. Seriously, were you not paying attention?
If they were a TV series
JOE’s been looking for a way to crowbar one of our favourite TV cartoons into our previews and now, with Ghana, we think we’ve finally managed it. Ghana AKA the Black Stars are, of course, the TV equivalent of the amazing Brave Starr.
Get it? Black Stars? Brave Starr?
Perfect. Everyone sing along now… “Brave Black Staaaaars, Brave Black Staaaaars”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaMo4k7iG7s
Prediction
In an alternative World Cup, Portugal vs Germany may have been a potential final and that tells you all you need to know about the Ghanaian’s chances in this year’s tournament; it’s going to be massively difficult to progress to say the least.
They’ll be big underdogs playing both of the European giants and, if they are to get any points from their 2014 group, it will most likely be at the expense of USA USA USA. As they did in the 2010 tournament, the Black Stars will be hoping to take victory against their Yank opponents once again, this time in their opening game on June 16th.
Tournament odds with Ladbrokes: 200/1
