It looks as if everything about our football is at the crossroads and the Senegalese national team, the Teranga Lions’, might have gotten an antidote to our national team, the Black Stars’ in recent times. Funny enough, they have a rebuttal for everything our coaches might do. Even the recent reshuffle made by the national coach, Avram Grant, for the friendly matches in France did not scare them a little bit.
Let us recall that episode in Equatorial Guinea during the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2015 opening match involving the Teranga Lions and the Black Stars at the Estadio Molongo.
The whole nation was breathlessly watching every detail of the event, and Avram Grant was having his baptism of fire Asamoah Gyan and others well-charged for the kill.
The Teranga Lions looked like the underdogs, their comparative record on the African terrain did not match that of the Black Stars and bookmakers went for the bet behind the four-time winners of the African Cup.
Even though the 33-year cup drought had so much eroded the confidence people had in the Black Stars, they looked poised for victory just to erase the Brazil debacle which called for urgent remedy which was expected to change the phase of the game that day.
In the end, however, the Teranga Lions proved why they were at the World Cup before the Blak Stars. Remember they were at the Japan/Korea World Cup in 2002, and went ahead to reach the quarter-finals, the second best recorded by an African team after Cameroun in Italia 1990.
In actual fact, they fought back from a goal down to upstage the Black Stars for the full three points at stake. The melodrama was on; but in the end the Black Stars plodded on to win the silver medals in the grand finale against the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire.
Avram Grant's lovely team was lauded as a dream team and also won the hearts of many corporate bodies including Tanink Ghana Limited, an automobile dealer who released 23 Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles to the players’ followed by others such as GLICO.
Avram Grant is a good fighter who "never say die", and despite all the nightmares that changed his facial outlook that day in the opening match, he decidedto prove a point to the soccer world with an invitation to the Senegalese for a friendly match in France quite recently.
And that was where the Teranga Lions showed their class winning by the same 2 - 1 margin as they did at the Molongo Stadium, thanks to Moussa Konate who came from the bench to rattle in two goals in 11 minutes.
Yes, just around that time, the century-old Accra Hearts of Oak had been locked in a Confederation Cup preliminaries with a Senegalese club Olympique D’Ngor. Hearts had earlier beaten them 2 - 1 at the Accra Sports Stadium and looking back a the back-to-back victory over the Black Stars, one could fathom that they could be devastating in the return match in Senegal.
Indeed, before the return leg Hearts were sweating over their financial difficulties and reports had it that they needed a huge sum of over GH¢18,000 to make the trip to Senegal. Their earlier encounter with AS Police of Benin had drained their pocket, eventhough Cotonou was just around the corner and they went by road. So definitely the trip to Senegal was certainly a big burden on their bankroller and Board Chairman Togbe Afede VIX.
Hearts coach Herbert Addo in various interviews granted on radio and in newspapers had said that his team was highly motivated to scrape through despite the odds and the fact that Olympique D’Ngor had home advantage. Hearts has a long historical evidence of overtaking the Senegalese at various levels in African clubs challenge.
In 1977, they faced ASC Diaraff and had smooth run-over in the preliminaries. In 1979 when Hearts went to the finals against Hafia of Guinea, they had to overcome strong Senegalese club US Goree in the semi-finals.
Then in 1985, US Goree came up for another challenge and Hearts sailed through. One of the Senegalese clubs Hearts had to wipe off on their way to their first African victory in the club championship was Jeanne d'Arc. And as if that was the fate of Hearts, in their 2004 winning of the maiden Confideration cup, they had to clear away another Senegalese club, AS Douane.
Nine years later, Herbert Addo had to come face to face with Olympique D’Ngor and do what looked like an impossible task in Senegal to the delight of their numerous fans who went out to celebrate on the night of Holy Saturday.
The next problem which looked easier was with Asante Kotoko who had to overcome their old nemesis from Algeria in the name of Club Moludia El Eulma, and in what looked like a walkover, we had all sorts of comments from critics and stakeholders.
It was easier for Kotoko to win as they had earlier chalked a goalless draw in Algeria, and coach David Duncan had to look at that assignment with his infectious smiles.
So much had been said about Duncan, and his CEO, Samuel Opoku Nti, had said in the week that the coach was the best thing to happen to the Porcupine Warriors. No lover of Kotoko spared a breath in predicting a sound victory over the Algerians but as we all know about the Kumasi-based club and their Algerian counterparts, everything went wrong on that Easter Sunday just as Bejaia did two years ago when Kotoko just needed a single goal.
And what about Herbert Addo losing to teams such as New Edubiase and Inter Allies just after beating Kotoko in Kumasi? Hearts are sinking on the league table, and could we say Herbert is better at international assignments, while Duncan seems better at home? This is a question worth answering.
