Can the Stars repeat the dose on USA?

From William D. Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent, Pretoria, South Africa

Pretoria, June 25, GNA - The Black Stars of Ghana will go into the game against the United States of America (USA) on Saturday, at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, with one common purpose - to advance to the quarter finals of the competition.

This will indeed be an improvement on their previous outing in the competition, when they bowed at the 1/16th stage of the 2006 edition with a 3-0 loss to Brazil.

It is indeed a battle against old foes, a side Ghana defeated at the group stages of the competition to advance to the 1/16th stage at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, hence vengeance will be on the minds of the Americans, as over six players who played in the last World Cup are in the present squad.

The likes of Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley and Donovan still have memories of the last defeat, whilst the Stars also have Richard Kingson, John Painstil, Hans Sarpei, Asamoah Gyan in the squad with a blend of youthful members of the team to go past the Americans. However, the Stars seem to have a slight psychological advantage over the Americans, who have not been bad customers in the competition, taking into consideration results of the last match between the two sides in the competition, four years ago.

However, one should expect the Stars to have a very stiff opposition from the Yanks on the pitch, who were indeed leaders of Group C in the tournament.

But coach Milovan Rajevac seems to have reckoned the challenges posed by the Americans, as he said at a press conference that the USA is a very good side, with quality players who could run throughout the entire duration of each game.

In all interactions with the media, the coach singled out Landon Donavan as the main man to deal with, but also recognised that the USA has players who play in high profile leagues in Europe and could pose a serious threat to the Stars.

With this in mind, the coach who has proven to be a very good tactician, has an idea of his approach to the game, when he told a press conference that, "We are at the knock out stages and we have to play to win at all cost because points do not count at the knock out stages anymore". Notwithstanding, coach Rajevac seems to have worries over the injury situation in the camp, as Isaac Vorsah, has once again been ruled out of the game, because he has not recovered from the hamstring injury, but this will pave way for Jonathan Mensah to make a third appearance in the competition. But one major problem that Stars will have to deal with in the game is the inability of the team to take advantage of scoring chances they created in each game played so far in the competition.

For pundits of the game, this could be resolved with the presence of Kevin Prince Boateng on the right side of attack, whilst a midfield role for Sulley Muntari could introduce more bite upfront.

However, the USA seems to be slightly ahead of the Stars in terms of performance in this particular tournament, having scored as many as against two by Ghana, both of which are from the penalty spot. But Ghana seems to have a psychological edge over their opponents. The expected massive support declared by the South Africans if capitalised on promptly could see the Stars making another historic entry into the next phase of the competition. 25 June 10