Everything about Ghana National Football Team totally explained
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. Before gaining independence from
Great Britain in
1957, the country played as the
Gold Coast.
Although the team didn't qualify for the senior
FIFA World Cup until
2006 they'd actually qualified for five straight
Olympic Games Football Tournaments when the tournament was still a full senior National Team competition. 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, behind
Egypt.
Ghana has always enjoyed tremendous success at the other
FIFA Tournaments. The
Ghana U17 team, the
Black Starlets have won the
FIFA Under-17 World Cup title twice and finished as runner-up twice. The
Ghana U20 team, the
Black Satellites have also finished as runner-up at the
FIFA Under-20 World Cup twice as well. The
Ghana Olympic Team, the
Black Meteors became the 1st African Country to win a
medal in
Football at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
After going through
2005 unbeaten, Ghana won the
FIFA World Rankings Most Improved team of the year award
and they reached
the second round of the
2006 Germany World Cup. According to
FIFA's
Rankings, Ghana, at 14th, are currently the best team in
Africa.
History
Amateur status
It is on record that the game of football was introduced into the
Gold Coast towards the close of the 19th century by merchants from Europe. The sailors at their leisure times played football among themselves and sometimes with a select side of the indigenous people. The popularity of the game spread like wild fire within a short time along the coast culminating in the formation of the first football club, Excelsior, in 1903 by Mr. Briton, a Jamaican-born British, who was then Head Teacher of Philip Quaicoe Government Boys School in Cape Coast. As the popularity of the game grew, other clubs along the coast, namely:
Accra Hearts of Oak, Kumasi Asante Kotoko Cape Coast Venomous Vipers, Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs,
Sekondi Hasaacas FC and Sekondi Eleven Wise all amateur clubs were formed.
Football Revolution (1957)
In 1957,
Kwame 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.
The die was cast; Football Administration was given a new lease. Mr. Ohene Djan was elected General Secretary of the Association by the clubs. The Ghana Amateur Football Association was officially founded. Forward looking and dynamic as he was, he affiliated the Association to
CAF and
FIFA in
1958, in the same year respectively. He was instrumental in getting a Pharmaceutical Firm Merrs R.R. Harding and Company to sponsor the first FA cup competition among eight clubs. In the same year he succeeded in securing the services of an ex-patriate Coach, Mr.
George Ainsley for the National Team. Then in 1959, he succeeded again in organising the first National league before
Ghana became a
Republic on
1 July,
1960.
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.
Early years
When Ghana celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in
2007, one of it's first sporting heroes remembered the role he played in the nation's early identity.
Joseph Agyeman-Gyau was a striker in the Black Stars side that won its inaugural
African Cup of Nations title in
1963, just six years after the country's Independence.
"That victory was very good for Ghana because it united the whole country," the sexagenarian told BBC Sport. "One of the purposes of (Ghana's first president)
Kwame Nkrumah was to tell the whole world that we can do things for ourselves and achieve positive results.
"In
1960, the Black Stars played Spanish giants
Real Madrid. At the time, the Spaniards were the
Spanish,
European and
World Champions but we drew 3-3 in
Accra. "The whole world couldn't believe it but it was a fact."
"Football is one of our cultures. You should use whatever you can to rally people, so that we'll see the purpose of strength in unity."
(In
1960, before they met Ghana,
Spanish Champions
Real Madrid beat
German team
Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 to win the
1960 European Cup at
Hampden Park,
Glasgow,
Scotland on
May 18,
1960 and beat
Uruguyan Club
Peñarol 5-1 in the two-legged final to win the
Intercontinental Cup. Real Madrid's most legendary names including
Alfredo Di Stéfano and
Ferenc Puskás played in that game. The score was 3-2 for Ghana with about a minute to go, before Real equalized.)
Ghana won the
African Cup of Nations back-to-back in
December 1963 and
November 1965. Three weeks after their new
African conquest in
Tunisia,
Kenya's first Head of State,
President Jomo Kenyatta invited the Ghana Black Stars - African Champions and the toughest national football team in black Africa at the time – to tour Kenya and play the
Kenya national football team at the
Nairobi Jamhuri Park, as part of Kenya's Independence(
Jamhuri Day) celebrations in
December 1965.
President Jomo Kenyatta was on hand to see the pure class of the magicians from the former Gold Coast even if it was just the first half.
Kenya started the game with legendary Gossage Cup goalkeeper Benedict Okoth in goal. However, after four quick trips to the back of his net to retrieve the ball, the Kenyan team management brought in the young James Sianga as replacement. He repeated the trips to the back of the net nine more times, for a final score of 0-13. in Ghana's favor.
Legendary Ghanaian Super Striker
Osei Kofi now a Reverend, who played in the November
1965 African Nations Cup and the Kenyan Independence Day
Jamhuri Cup International friendly match, on
December 12,
1965, recounted this 13-0 Friendly match and record win, in the Pre-
2006 FIFA World Cup documentary DVD series
"The History of Football: The Beautiful Game" and also on Skysports, before Ghana's
2006 FIFA World Cup game against the
Czech Republic.
This 13-0 win, came a couple of years after Ghana had gone to
Malawi, and beaten their
national football team 12-0 on
October 15 1962, in a similar International friendly match. It was also in the 1960s that Ghana went to consecutive
African Nations Cup final back-to-back-to-back-to-back from
1963,
1965,
1968 and
1970.
On
12 November 1965, Ghana beat
Congo-Kinshasa (now
Democratic Republic of the Congo) 5-2 in the
1965 African Cup of Nations 1st Round Group B match played in
Sousse,
Tunisia. Scorers in that match were:
Osei Kofi 13',
Ben Acheampong 18', 59',
Jones Attuquayefio 84', 89'; Kalala 43, (pen) 45'. The Congolese called Ghana
Black Stars for a revenge International friendly match on their Independence day at the
Stade Tata Raphaël, in
Kinshasa on
30 June,
1966. The excellent Ghanaians asserted themselves again by beating their Hosts 3-0.
After that defeat, the then President of
Congo-Kinshasa,
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu decided to totally overhaul their national team, and change their name as well. Thus the
Lions became
Léopards. The new team was put together by their
Hungarian Trainer
Ferenc Csanadi and later won the
1968 African Cup of Nations beating Ghana by 1-0 in the Final on
21 January,
1968 in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia to deny the Ghanaians a third straight Continental title, in the competition's greatest upset of all-time.
Charles Kumi Gyamfi Impact
As far back as
September 1960, Ghanaian international and later coach
Charles Kumi Gyamfi was the first foreign import to
Düsseldorf,
Germany. He was the first African player in the German league.
It all started on
2 August,
1959, with a test match in
Accra between
Fortuna Düsseldorf and
Accra Hearts of Oak. It was the first of five matches during a tour through
Ghana and
Nigeria which had been sponsored by the
West-German Football Association. Beyond any doubt one of the "hottest" matches Fortuna has ever played. Fortuna players remember the heat and the game being played on a sandy, bumpy pitch. Charles Gyamfi, Accra Hearts of Oak's captain, and Düsseldorf's captain
Erich Juskowiak exchanged banners before the match which the German guests later won 3-2.
During a reception at then
Prime Minister Nkrumah's residence later that evening, it was agreed that 28-year-old Charles Gyamfi had to transfer to
Germany not only to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf but also to study professional coaching at the
German Sport University Cologne. It is reported that Charles Gyamfi was very quick to learn the German language and stunned spectators and football experts alike with his athletic and quick game, a general trade mark of African football. However, it's also reported that he never liked the German winter with snow and ice and returned, homesick, to Ghana in
1961.
With a German Football Coaching degree in his rucksack, Charles Gyamfi won the
African Cup of Nations three times as a coach (
1963,
1965,
1982) - a record that stands up to today. He also coached the Ghana Olympic team in
Tokyo in
1964 and in
Munich in
1972. Today, he's one of the Ghana Football Association's honorary presidents.
Just like Charles Gyamfi,
Benjamin Koufie, former Black Star Coach as well as Ex-
GFA President, learned his trade in
Köln (1961) and
Leipzig (1964).
Changing times
Changing times changing needs. Ghana Football shrugged off its fully Amateur Status to become Professional, enabling clubs to be incorporated under the companies Code (Act 193, 1963) as Limited Liability Companies either by shares or guarantee through the 1993 Famous Winneba Declaration.
Memorable Losses: The 'Bochum Disaster'
On the night of
14 April 1993, Ghana’s senior National team played then
1990 FIFA World Cup defending champions
Germany away at the
Ruhrstadion,
Bochum,
Germany in an international friendly match. Parading then 3-time
African Footballer of the Year Abedi Pele, back-to-back
Bundesliga top-scorer Anthony Yeboah among others
Match Photo Here, Ghana shocked the World Champions by taking the lead through
Prince Polley in the 44', in front of 37,000 home fans. They took the 1-0 lead over Germany into half-time.
Germany stormed back in the 2nd half and scored 3 quick goals in the 70th minute alone through
Ulf Kirsten,
Stefan Effenberg, and
Jürgen Klinsmann. With the Ghanaian team in disarray, the World Champions added 3 more goals in the 82’, 86', and 88’, for a final score of 6-1.
It was later reported by the Ghanaian newspaper
Daily Graphic that there was division in the Ghanaian team dressing room at half time over how to share the match bonus. The foreign based players on the team wanted a bigger bonus than their locally based counterparts and the issue was still unresolved when the Ghanaians stepped out on the field to play the 2nd half. The Ghanaian media coined the term 'Bochum Disaster', which stuck in Ghanaian footballing folklore as the worst defeat of all time for the Black Stars.
Ghana's U-23 Olympic Youth Team, the
Black Meteors also lost 2-8 away to their Brazilian counterparts
Brazil Olympic Team on
27 March,
1996 at
Teixeirão in
São José do Rio Preto,
Brazil in a Pre-
1996 Olympic Friendly later classified as a FIFA 'A' International. After
Sávio scored a 47min penalty to make it 2-0 for Brazil,
Anthony Yeboah pulled one back for Ghana. With the game at 1-2 in Brazil's favor, young Ghanaian defender
Samuel Kuffour was sent off in the 51st min for a tackle in the Ghanaian box for another penalty to Brazil, which
André Luiz scored. The 10-man Meteors youngsters couldn't keep up with their hosts and eventually lost 2-8.
Both Olympic Teams would meet again, four months later, in the
Atlanta Olympics Tournament proper, at the
Quarter Finals where Ghana lost 2-4 to Brazil, after the Ghanaians squandered a 2-1 lead in the second half. Brazil broke the 2-2 tie in the 62nd minute on
Ronaldo's second goal, and
Bebeto added the clincher 10 minutes later..
Match Report Here.
The “Black Monday”
On Monday
30 March 1987 fresh from winning the
West African Nations Cup in
Liberia for the 5th consecutive time, going 5 wins in 5 matches
(2-0 v Ivory Coast, 4-0 v Niger, 3-0 v Togo, 3-1 v Nigeria, and 2-1 v Hosts Liberia in the Final) Ghana played the "Leone Stars" of
Sierra Leone in
Accra in the 1st leg qualifying match for the
1988 African Cup of Nations. The match was initially scheduled for the day before, which was a Sunday, but the
Sierra Leone fans couldn't make it due to a flight problem. Ghana, confident of a win over a supposedly weaker opponent, decided to fly the "Leone Stars" on their own airplane from
Freetown to
Accra for the match which was rescheduled for that Monday.
The Black Stars wore an all red outfit with black armbands to mourn the loss of the great Ghanaian Sports Director and
first GFA President Ohene-Djan who had passed away earlier. The Black Stars team captain for the day was Abdul Aziz.
The Sierra Leoneans shocked Ghana with two early goals from long range by their left winger John Dumbulla. The Black Stars worked tirelessly until they got a late consolation goal when Abdul Aziz connected home an overlapping Naana Eshun cross from the right wing to bring the final score to a 1-2 upset win in favour of the visitors; a result which eventually knocked Ghana out of the running for the tournament proper. This shock result spun Ghana Football into deep crisis with several losses thereafter that took over 3 full years to recover; including a 0-2 loss to
Liberia in a
1990 FIFA World Cup qualifier in 1988 and another loss to
Gabon during a
1990 African Cup of Nations qualifier in 1989 - 2 bad results that knocked Ghana out of the two major 1990 tournaments. The Ghanaian media named that infamous day "Black Monday", which stuck to this day.
FIFA World Cup Qualifying jinx
Ghana tried to qualify for the senior
FIFA World Cup 11 previous times from 1962 - 2002, without success. Although Ghana didn't qualify for the senior
FIFA World Cup until
2006 (Once tagged
The Best team never to have qualified for a World Cup), they'd actually qualified for 8
Olympic Games Football Tournaments, 5 of them back when the Tournament was still a full senior National Team competition in
1964,
1968,
1972,
1976 and
1980 (they boycotted the
1976 and
1980 Olympics due to politics).
In Ghana, a lot of theories made up by players, officials, fans and the media abound, with virtually all of them saying that "Ghana always saw the
FIFA World Cup as an
European thing" in those days and never took its qualification serious, even withdrawing from the Qualifiers on two occasions in
1966 and
1982, since
African teams were marginalized; whereas the
Olympic Games was considered a more global sporting event and everything was done to prepare the
Black Stars team hence their record participation in the Olympics and none appearance at the World Cup.
For instance in 1978, Ghana had a very strong team that eventually won the
African Cup of Nations, but celebrated sports journalists in the country wrote that Ghana can't win the
1978 FIFA World Cup, so they should rather concentrate on winning the
1978 African Cup of Nations for keeps (3 times). They cited the fact that Ghana had earlier lost all 3
Group D matches at the
1972 Olympics 0-4 to
Poland, 0-4 to
East Germany and 1-3 to
Colombia. To many people in Ghana, the World Cup was a mirage and decided to channel their energies into doing so well in the
Nations Cup to win it for keeps and retire the original
African Cup of Nations, which they did that year.
Ghana has always enjoyed success at the other
FIFA tournaments, winning the
FIFA World Under-17 title twice and finishing runner-up twice. Ghana has also finished second at the
FIFA World Youth Championship twice as well. The Ghana Olympic Team, the
Black Meteors became the 1st African country to win a
medal in
Football at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Recent Years
1990s Dressing Room Politics & Splits
Ghana appointed German
Burkhard Ziese as Coach in 1991 and he helped Ghana to qualify for the
1992 African Cup of Nations in
Senegal under the captain-ship of
Kwasi Appiah of then Ghana League Champions
Asante Kotoko. The Black Stars went to a Pre-Tournament Training Camp in
Faro,
Portugal for two weeks ahead of the competition and Kwasi Appiah was stripped of his captain-ship and the armband given to Abedi Pele on a reason that he wasn't French-speaking.
This created deep divisions in the team because to the 9 or so present and former
Asante Kotoko players on the squad that reason wasn't plausible, and that the officials hadn't handled the captain-ship transition well (half of the team was from
Kumasi, half from
Accra). The open-secret controversy hung over the Black Stars for many years through the better part of the 1990’s and eventually needed a
parliamentary and
executive intervention to settle the polarized issue between the two stars of the team
Abedi Pele and
Anthony Yeboah who were at the fore-front of it all. Both players were called to the Ghana Parliament for a resolution to the crisis, but the deep dressing room division was allowed to fester for so long, that it had already done harm to Ghana’s chances at the
1994 and
1996 Nations Cup and their hopes of qualifying for the
1994 and
1998 FIFA World Cups as well.
The “Generation gap”
After the bickering
Abedi Pele/
Anthony Yeboah generation retired in disappointment in 1998
(they were the only generation that never won the African Cup of Nations for Ghana even though they lost the 1992 Final v Ivory Coast 10-11 on Penalty Kicks), Ghana went through a lull performance period that people usually refer to as the "generation gap". They contended that Ghana didn't develop the superb youngsters who won all those FIFA Youth Tournaments in the early to mid-’90s and actually never gave majority of them the chance to play senior internationals. The end result was that Ghana struggled for good results between 1998 and 2003, culminating in their missing out of the
2004 African Cup of Nations after a 0-1 away loss to
Rwanda.
After sinking to such new lows, even on the
FIFA World Rankings moving from 15th to 89th, Ghana picked up with a new generation of players who went to the
2001 FIFA World Youth Championship Final, played a young team of 19 year olds at the
2002 African Cup of Nations to gain experience and continued to build them up at the
2004 Olympic Games until that team qualified them for the
2006 FIFA World Cup as the youngest team at that tournament. Today, the Ghanaian team is again one of the African football powers.
Team honours
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
Most African Nations Cup Wins
| Wins |
ation |
ear(s) |
| 6 times |
|
1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 |
| 4 times |
|
1963, 1965, 1978, 1982 |
| 4 times |
|
1984, 1988, 2000, 2002 |
Most African Nations Cup Final appearances
African Cup of Nations
The African Cup of Nations is the main international football competition for African nations. It was first held in 1957, and since 1968 it has been held every two years in even numbered years. Ghana's very successful record historically in this Tournament earned the country the nickname of "the Brazil of Africa" in the 1960s.
The Ghana Amateur Football Association was affiliated to Confederation of African Football in 1958 and in 1963, it won the bid to host the 5th African Cup of Nations to coincide with the Meeting of the O.A.U. Heads of States and Government in Accra.
Ghana won the trophy and went ahead again to successfully defend it in Tunisia in 1965. By these sterling feats, Ghana Football had become a house hold name on the African continent. Ohene Djan was one of the pillars in African Football and in CAF. As one of the then leading political leaders in Africa, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the Republic of Ghana, used football to chalk political victories as follows:-
he championed the cause of “African personality” in football;
he used football as a tool to fight against apartheid in South Africa;
he used football to weld the heterogeneous cultures of Africa together; and
he used football as a vehicle to place Ghana on the football map of Africa and the World.
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 1970's 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 a nutshell, after the 1965 African Cup of Nations triumph, Ghana narrowly lost 0-1 to Democratic Republic of Congo formerly Congo-Kinshasa in the 1968 African Cup of Nations final match, preventing the Ghanaians from winning an unprecedented 3 straight African Nations Cup trophies. Ghana again went to the final of the next African Nations Tournament in 1970 against Sudan, the Host Nation in Khartoum, for their 4th consecutive final, an unprecedented feat unequalled to this day. The Sudanese after beating Egypt 2-1 in the Semi-Finals (After Extra-Time), beat Ghana 1-0 in the Final, to win the Cup. The Ghanaians, who accused Ethiopian Referee Tesfaye Gebreyesus of favouring the Host team, boycotted the Award Ceremony and were expelled the same day by the Sudanese authorities.
Ghana hosted and won the trophy for the third time during the 13th edition of the Tournament; the 1978 African Cup of Nations - allowing them to keep the original trophy in perpetuity, and four years later, they truimphed again -for the 4th time- during the 1982 African Cup of Nations in Tripoli, Libya. Ghana has made a total of 15 appearances in the Continental Championship and played in an African record 7 Final matches, the last of which was a marathon penalty-shootout loss to the The Côte d'Ivoire team in 1992 Tournament in Senegal. The 1992 team featured and was captained by Abedi Pele - considered perhaps Africa's greatest footballer ever. he was the tournament's top player, and missed the final due to suspension following a controversial yellow card in the semi finals.
In the 2006 African Nations Cup in Egypt, Ghana competed in Group D. The group which also contained Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe, became dubbed the Group of Death.
Ghana exited the tournament in the 1st Round after Superstar midfielder Michael Essien, key player Sulley Muntari and striker Asamoah Gyan got injured prior to the start of the Tournament and pulled out altogether, severely jolting the Ghana team. Ghana started with a 0-1 loss to Nigeria, beat Senegal 1-0 and surprisingly lost to outsiders Zimbabwe 2-1, their first loss to Zimbabwe ever. See all 3 2006 Nations Cup Ghana Match Information and video highlights here
Ghana hosted the 2008 African Cup of Nations from 20 January to 10 February 2008 in their 16th Appearance at the Tournament. They were in Group A together with, and .
| Team |
Pts |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
|
9 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
+4 |
|
4 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
|
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
6 |
+1 |
|
1 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
-5 |
|score = 2 - 1
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 = Gyan
Muntari
|goals2 = Kalabane
|stadium = Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra
Ref: Eddy Maillet (Seychelles)
}}
|score = 1 - 0
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 = Agogo
|goals2 =
|stadium = Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra
Ref: Kacem Bennaceur (Tunisia)
}}
|score = 2 - 0
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 = Essien
Muntari
|goals2 =
|stadium = Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra
Ref: Modou Sowe (Gambia)
}}
|score = 2 - 1
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 = Essien
Agogo
|goals2 = Yakubu
|stadium = Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra
Ref: Mohamed Benouza (Algeria)
}}
|score = 0 - 1
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 =
|goals2 = Nkong
|stadium = Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra
Ref: Abderrahim El Arjoun (Morocco)
}}
|score = 4 - 2
|report= Report, Highlights
|team2 =
|goals1 = Muntari
Owusu-Abeyie
Agogo
Dramani
|goals2 = Sanogo
|stadium = Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi
Ref: Jerome Damon (South Africa)
}}
The SCSA (Supreme Council of Sport in Africa) Zone "III" Regional Tournament also known as West African Nations Cup or "Zone 3" Championship was held from 1982 to 1987 (not in 1985), but has been discontinued.
Ghana won all editions (1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987), and indeed never lost a single match among the 25 matches they played.
The tournament was unsuccessfully revived in 2001 as WAFU Championship; in 2005 a "WAFU Laurent Gbagbo West African Unity Cup" was organised between four of the better teams of the region, apparently as an invitational tournament so not a proper successor of the tournament of the eighties.
The Ghana Olympic team is known as The Black Meteors. They have qualified for 8 Olympic Games Football Tournaments, 5 of them back when the Tournament was still a full senior National Team competition in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 (They however boycotted the 1976 and 1980 Olympics) and 3 times since it became an U23 competition in 1992, 1996 and 2004.
Ghana's first participation in the Summer Olympics football competition in 1964 Summer Olympics pitched them against Argentina, Italy and Japan in Group D (Italy later withdrew). In their first game, Ghana drew 1-1 with South America Olympic Qualifying Champions Argentina on 12 October, 1964 on a goal by Edward Acquah and beat Host Nation Japan 3-2 (Goals: Agyemang, Sam Acquah, Aggrey Fynn) four days later to top their Group after Italy withdrew. But they lost the Quarter Final game 5-1 to Egypt. In that game, Ghana played well against Egypt before half time with the scores tied at 1-1, but their players complained about feeling too cold. It is an open secret now; that the Ghanaian Coaches looking to curb the numbing effects of the Tokyo cold, gave their Players liquor and some got drunk coming into the second half and they conceded 4 more goals. losing heavily as a result. Wilberforce Mfum scored Ghana's only goal of that game.
The 1968 Summer Olympics might have been the most tumultuous of all Olympics, and that confusion and problems touched the football tournament as well. Morocco, who had qualified for the tournament, refused to play Israel. Morocco's replacement, Ghana lost to Israel, 5-3, in a fight-filled match that reportedly continued at the Olympic Village. Ghana also drew 2-2 with Hungary and 1-1 with El Salvador.
Ghana qualified for the 1972 Summer Olympics but lost all three group matches against Poland, East Germany and Colombia.(External Link)
In the 1976 Summer Olympics, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia Qualified for the Tournament but all withdrew only a day before the opening ceremony as part of a general African boycott against the participation of apartheid South Africa. They were not replaced, and so the competition involved only 13 teams. Ghana was in Group C alongside Poland, Iran and Cuba but didn't play any of their scheduled matches.
In the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Ghana qualified from Africa by beating Liberia 2-0 away in Monrovia on Sunday 24 February 1980 in the 1st leg of the Final Round and drew 2-2 at home in the 2nd leg, played in Accra on Sunday 13 April 1980. Ghana thus qualified 4-2 on aggregate. They however boycotted the tournament. The Communist countries held their own private Eastern bloc party in 1980 because a number of nations boycotted the Olympics. U.S President Jimmy Carter refused to send American teams to Moscow after the Soviets' Afghanistan invasion. Six other countries that had qualified for the football tournament followed suit -- Argentina, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Malaysia and Norway. Nigeria and Zambia replaced Ghana and Egypt respectively.
In the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Ghana, who had the youngest team by far in the competition (18.8 years), were a surprise bronze medallists, becoming the first African nation to earn a medal.(External Link) They did so in a 1-0 victory over yet another surprise, Australia, on 7 August.(External Link) They finished the match with their third goalkeeper, Simon Addo, in the nets after second goalkeeper Ibrahim Dossey was forced out with an injury. Ghana won on a free-kick goal by Isaac Asare in the 20th minute, five minutes after Dossey had saved an Australian penalty. In the group stages, Ghana beat Australia 3-1, tied 0-0 with Denmark, and tied 1-1 with Mexico. In the Quarter final, Ghana beat Paraguay 4-2 after extra-time and lost 2-0 to Spain in the Semi-final.
In the 1996 Summer Olympics, Ghana was knocked out at the Olympic Quarter Finals in a 4-2 loss to a Ronaldo and Bebeto led Brazil side on 28th July, 1996 at the Atlanta games. Before then, they tied 1-1 with Mexico, upset a Cannavaro and Nesta led Italy team 3-2 but lost the opening game of the competition 1-0 to Korea.
In the 2004 Summer Olympics, Ghana opened the Tournament with a 2-2 draw game with an Andrea Pirlo led Italy after taking a 2-0 first half lead in Group B. They beat eventual silver medallists Paraguay 2-1 in the 2nd game, but lost to Japan1-0 in the last group game. Tied on 4 points, 0 goals for, and Head-to-Head with eventual Bronze medal winners Italy, the Ghanaians were unlucky to go through because Italy had scored 5 and conceded 5, whilst Ghana had scored 4 and conceded 4.
Ghana's Summer Olympic Football Squads: 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004
On 22 February 2007, FIFA declared Burkina Faso losers of the 2008 Olympic Games Qualifier against Ghana for fielding two ineligible players. Ghana football authorities protested to FIFA after Mady Saidou Panandetiguiri and Fousseni Traore played in the first leg match, which Burkina Faso won 2-0 in Ouagadougou on 7 February 2007. "Consequently, the game between Burkina Faso and Ghana that was played on 7 February 2007 is declared as a Burkina Faso forfeit, with a score of 0-3".
2008 Olympic Games Qualifying African Group A
| Team |
Pts |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
|
8 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
3 |
+4 |
|
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
5 |
+3 |
|
1 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
10 |
-7 |
Forthcoming Fixtures
The three Olympic Qualifying Group winners from Africa qualify for the Football Tournament at the 2008 Beijing Games
The Ghana Olympic Team participated in the 2007 All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria from 11 July-23 July, 2007. Ghana was in Group A together with Tunisia, Cameroon (holders) and South Africa. They reached the African Games after eliminating Nigeria's Olympic Team.
Ghana tried to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 11 previous times from 1962 - 2002, without success. In their World Cup debut, they'd a Pre-Tournament Training Camp in Seeboden on the Millstätter Lake, in Austria's southern province of Carinthia. Ghana competed in Group E of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The group also contained Italy, Czech Republic and the United States. Group E was dubbed the ‘’Group of Death‘’ by some as all the teams were deemed capable of qualifying and 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, followed by a 2-1 victory over the USA team, to finish second in Group E and continue through to the next round along with eventual Champions Italy.
Ghana's unlikely run ended when they met defending World Champions Brazil in the Second Round. Influential player Michael Essien was suspended from the match for his two yellow card's earlier in the Tournament. Despite all of this, Ghana dictated the style and pace of this match, surprising many with several near-goals. In the end, Brazil won 3-0, although there was some controversy over the first two goals scored by Ronaldo and Adriano as they were both offside. Slovakian referee Ľuboš Micheľ also sent off Asamoah Gyan in the 82' for falling in the Brazilian penalty area. Zé Roberto scored the third for Brazil off a breakaway soon after.
Ghana were the only African side to advance to Round 2 of 2006 FIFA World Cup (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 was the youngest team in the FIFA World Cup 2006 with an average age of 23 yrs and 352 days.
Because of Ghana's performances in the tournament, there has been praise for their continuous efforts to push forward and their fearless attitude. Greece Coach Otto Rehhagel told FIFA.com, the teams you used to regard as a little behind tactically, the Africans for example, have caught up. They're physically even better off than we are, as they've tremendous natural athleticism, and they've come on enormously in the areas which were non-existent before, discipline and tactics for example. Every team which faced Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire knew they'd been in a game. FIFA.com says Black stars ascend to glory. BBC says: Ghana going forward.
Of the 32 countries that participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ghana was ranked the 13th Best Nation by FIFA.
Forthcoming fixtures and Recent results
