Black Queens to replace Black Stars at de next AFCON?

It is only a question I am asking o. Some people have already started cringing at this title but is this not possible? After all, the Black Queens took the lead in qualifying for the World Cup in the early 2000s before their male counterparts made it to the 2006 World Cup.

Greetings o, Ms Adjowa Bayorr! Oh my oh my! Soccer paaaa! You wait and see when we pitch the two sides against each other at the stadium. The Queens are playing their Zambian female Queens this weekend. Is it today or when? Please try and go to the stadium and see their dexterity at work! Super…yet! Hmmm!

Somebody just reminded me by asking me whether we still have a Ghana Under-17 team. How would I know if you don’t know that most members of the last batch of Ghana’s successful under-17 players are now senior fathers and since then….God dey we dey! As for the Under-20 guys who won the World Cup in 2009, majority of them are now businessmen with children who should be approaching 17 years old by now! Ei Amuzu! is there no young good football player in Ghana who is 17 years or younger yet? Ah!

Hmmmm….’ You see, any time you hear the dog do ‘Hmmmm’, it means something is bothering it and it does not know who to tell. That is why occasionally, when they vex, they throw all kinds of courtesy and respect to the wind and start bearing their teeth at their owners. What is friendship if we can’t tell each other the truth? What at all am I trying to say here han? I don’t even know la!

Abeg, if it is about Black Stars, let me go and watch cartoons. I have done my best by investing my heart and getting it broken on consistent basis and I don’t know who is expected to do something about it. Or we want to wait for the next qualification to the continental or world stage and we would start going around the whole world looking for 17-year-olds whose mothers or fathers come from Ghana. After that, we bring them together and then…..hmmmm! Me? Black Stars? I give up!

Anyway, let’s get down to unserious business! Let’s do some unintellectual non-fa here. Thank God it is another weekend full of excitement and positive vibes.

I told you before that I used to play soccer paaa but any time I was featured in a match, we lost! Since then, I only watched soccer with passion.

Can you imagine a situation where a friend owes you money; the due date has passed. You call him on phone to say ‘Hello’ in a subtle manner just to remind him of his indebtedness to you and he starts talking about Black Stars? Ah! This thing happened to me again during the last AFCON after that ‘spiritual attack’ draw that brought Ghana back home shamefully and ‘safely’!

I still miss those wonderful days when something would push you to go to stadium to go watch local league and shout in ecstasy. Have you ever found yourself at the wrong side of the stadium? You remember I mentioned here some time ago, Kotoko was playing Liberty Professionals and I decided to go to stadium to do ‘against’. I regretted. I was in the midst of some dyed-in-wool ‘red devils’ supporters when Kotoko scored the first goal and all the guys around me screamed ‘goooaaalllllllllll’! I was the only one who didn’t celebrate this goal.

Apparently, they were observing me through my body language and could sense I was a fan of the only club that starts a sentence with past tense…’arose…arose…arose’ – the Masters! (Don’t worry, now we don’t even know whether we deserve to be called servants sef!) Then Liberty equalized and spontaneously instinctively, I shouted ‘gooooaaaaalll’. Before I could even finish this, I started seeing stars [not Black stars o]. This was after I heard a ‘gentle’ slap and a knock on my head ‘kpaaaaaa’. Beatings be what! I turned round and saw nobody. Kpaa Kpaa! Hahaaaa!

I swallowed my excitement and kept quiet. Eish! In less than 2 minutes, Liberty scored again leading the score line at 2-1 and this time I suppressed my excitement. Quietly, I walked out of the place and covered my joy with coughing. Somebody still saw this coughing as another form of jubilation and, with a half-empty water bottle, my back ‘kpaaaaa’! It was fun though because the passion was there. Next time [provided such an opportunity will come again], when you go to the stadium and you make your ‘enemy’s enemy your friend, be careful where you sit. Even if you happen to find yourself at the wrong place, keep quiet!

Anyway, so what are we going to do about Hearts and Kotoko? Anytime these 2 clubs were about to play, the euphoria that caught up with almost everyone was healing and that of anticipated inner fulfilment! They too are not helping to save our local soccer. Talents abound in the remote areas in Ghana but we prefer to globe trot in search of half-castes to play for as Black Stars.

We Ghanaians also have a responsibility to balance our preference for both local and international football. Gone are the days when we supported clubs because of the players. One waited impatiently for Sunday to come so you could go and watch the late Shamo Quaye scoring against Adjetey Lee’s Ho Voradep and Joe Debrah of blessed memory scoring against Joe Famiyeh’s Afienya United. Local soccer was just sweet! Today, ask me about a player in Hearts and Kotoko in the past 10 years and I know you know I can’t give you one and you know I know you can’t give me one! Our premier league has become like P.E on the time table of basic schools. The national attention has turned to Man U, Woman U!

Even my 5-year old can jump up from bed and start analysing Mbappes’s free-kick and Messi’s penalty kicks. Ask him about Hearts and Kotoko and she would wonder in awe as if to ask whether you were referring to some Asafo companies! Who cause am? Or we should blame somebody? I am so sad. In the past 15 years, you would no longer (emphasis mine) see the flags of the two former local giants flying on top of trotros travelling from Aflao to Elubo and from Gbogblo City (aka Agbogbloshie) to Bawku! Nobody is interested! What happened? There is no single play maker of these two clubs. For the other clubs, forgerit! Ghana soccer is sinking or it ‘have’ sunk? Local soccer is not getting corporate support because there is no basis to convince a serious company to sponsor.

We thought the Black Stars were a shoulder to rest our heads on and they too…puin! I don’t know when again we would experience that ‘killer baa gbo last show’ climax at the end of a game when the Black Stars would surprise you with a last minute winning goal! As for now, when we are even winning, the motivation or so it appears is to manage and lose.

In recent times, when we are ahead, we don’t protect the lead or stretch our opponents till the final whistle is blown. We start preparing for how to ‘lose last show’! Our hearts are being toyed with.

It’s about time we shifted our focus, attention and resources to the Black Queens; they deserve better than the eyi because they are doing better! Prrrr! Game over! Enjoy the weekend!