How do we overcome the Bejaia scare?
If the standard of football I watched on big screen at the Stanas Pub at SCC last Saturday evening between Manchester United and Hull City in the English Premier League was anything to judge our standards down here, then I must say for sure that we have still got a long way to go.
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Newly-promoted Hull City faced Man United boot-for-boot and succeeded in holding their opponents until the 90th minute, but then the best was to come from experienced United skipper Wayne Rooney who applied his senses with his last gasp of breath.
Good old Rooney, who is aging fast and playing in the midfield, shifted to the left flank. Just one minute to the end of the five minutes of the time added on, he took the ball and immediately overpowered his nearest marker.
He pushed forward swiftly to round up his second marker at the edge of the left corner, and without hesitation found young Marcus Rashford who had come in late as a substitute dashing forward in the midst of the defence men. And like a lightning flash, located him for a one-touch drive home for their important single goal away win.
The KC Stadium was set ablaze with joy, and coach Jose Mourino in his delight was unsure what to do to himself at the spur of the moment. Everybody at the Stanas Pub gave the boy Rashford all the plaudits, as he ran to the Manchester supporters and his technical team to hug everybody, forgetting it was Rooney who did all the dirty work to create the much-cherished last minute goal.
Yes, that is how the high class which has been the mark of the English Premier League a thing to boast of, and something from which we can learn a lot of lessons. Is it any wonder that the patronage to our league is gradually dwindling with fans rushing to the video centres?
And down here, a whole lot of fire-exchanges are going on with the Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lante Vanderpuye and the top hierarchy of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) drawing daggers and raising hell over low standards in recent times, culminating in corporate bodies withdrawing their sponsorship and companies refusing to enter the arena of sponsorship of the Premier League.
The minister had earlier on said on an Accra radio station that the national league standard had fallen, and that it was not as attractive as it should be. Of course, he is not the only person who has expressed his misgivings over the fallen standards, but at that level, a proper analysis must be applied to appreciate the utterance, and possibly find a solution. We all know how fans wished we had returned to the good old days.
In reality, as compared to what we see on the continent of Africa with our clubs falling easily out of their continental competitions, one must say a lot is needed to be done to bring back the fire-power that would be appreciated by all.
Needless to say, one would have wished that our last hope in the on-going CAF Continental Cup, Medeama, would have had a favourable result in a group comprising T.P. Mezembe of DR Congo, Mouloudia Olympique de Bejaia of Algeria and Young Africans of Tanzania.
But then after some hard work, they managed to come out with flying colours, leading to a big hope to reach the semi-finals where their chances of breaking through to winning the cup was at least a remote possibility. However, the same old Bejaia incidentally rared their heads and once again became responsible for our last ditch.
One may recall that the same Bejaia were responsible for our last three African failures, talking about Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Ashgold and Medeama. I don't really know the psychological make-up of the Algerian team, but they seem to have an antidote to our fire-power at any level on the continental drive.
Is it any wonder that when the time came for the balloting for the two Groups of clubs that had qualified for the league stage of this year's Confederation Cup competition, the prayers of the team Medeama and the entire nation was to swerve Bejaia in our group. But that is how fate plays its tricks, and Medeama had to accept the challenge in their Group A.
This is a particular year soccer fans have expressed great confidence in our sole representatives who did so well in the initial stages but lost their expatriate head coach suddenly midway through the early rounds and was replaced by our own compatriot, Prince Yaw Owusu. And true to expectation, after working hard to a second position on overcoming their challengers, the biggest hurdle was M.O.Bejaia who had proved to be the nemesis of our top clubs in recent times.
And as if by design, Medeama's plans had to end at the hands of the Algerian club who managed to force a draw at the Essipong Stadium at Sekondi and went back quickly to ambush their opponents at home.
Lo and behold, it was a dogfight at Bejaia, and in the end the bullet hit Medeama and edged them out. Now comes the question as to how come that the same Bejaia has blown the bubble of all the aspirants that come from our end, and perhaps the most important point is how to find an answer to the Algerian superiority!
Maybe until these problems are well-dressed, there is no way we can overcome the jinx. Good luck!