Appiah calms high expectation

The Black Stars are counting on the valuable lessons from their World Cup debut to put them in a good stead when the competition starts in Group D.

Captain for the side, Stephen Appiah says, reaching the second round in 2006 lifted expectations in Ghana. But he is quick to remind his colleagues and an expectant nation not to look beyond the opening game.

Ghana, the youngest team at the tournament begins the competition on Sunday in Pretoria against Serbia in a tough group which includes Australia and Germany.

Appiah is too clever to know how such competitions pun out and is counting on their debut experience to aid their campaign this time round.

"Now they want us to get the Cup," Appiah said with a smile. "Some of the players who were there took a lot of things from that tournament, and we made sure that we are going to repeat it here," he said.

And for Appiah, the usual mantra of ‘one game at a time’ still applies to this band of players.

"It is going to be a long way, we will take it match after match," he said.

"For now we are not even thinking about Australia. We are focusing on Serbia … Everyone is talking about Germany and Australia, but let me tell you I am scared of Serbia because they are aggressive and technically they are good."