Upper West watched third-place match for only 18 minutes

Wa, Feb. 9, GNA - Soccer fans in the Upper West Region watched the Ghana- Cote D'Ivoire third place match for only 18 minutes as power inexplicably went off from 1100 hours until 1830 hours when it was restored.

The Northern Electricity Department (NED) of Volta River Authority (VRA) could not explain the cause of the power outage and had to use announcement vans to appeal to the people not to repeat the vandalism that was visited on them during the final match of Ghana-Brazil Ecuador 1995 U-17 World Cup.

In spite of all that, a lot of fans still rained insults on workers of VRA for their inability to keep to their promise of having uninterrupted power supply throughout GHANA 2008 Soccer fiesta when power was finally restored.

On the match itself, the supporters returned to the streets in a jubilant mood shouting "Kitiwa bia nsua", a Twi version of "half a loaf is better than no bread".

Thomas Kapiri, a student of the University of Ghana, said although Ghana did not win the ultimate, beating La Cote D'Ivoire emphatically was enough to protect its hard won image among soccer giants in the world.

Most of the supporters the GNA interviewed suggested to the Black Stars Coach claude Le Roy to maintain the current squad with the inclusion of much younger ones who would in future step into the shoes of the current generation. "We are out, but not embarrassed" was all what Mr George Folley Quaye of Daily Graphic had to say when the GNA asked him on his opinion of the performance of the Stars.