AFCON: Ghana Eager To End 35-Year Jinx

Ghana will be eager to break a 35-year jinx as they look forward to securing a final berth at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tomorrow in Gabon.
The Ghana Black Stars face Central Africa’s Cameroon in the semi-finals of AFCON at the Stade de Franceville in Franceville Cameroon and Ghana are both four-time champions, but Cameroon last won 15 years ago and Ghana’s long wait to be champions of Africa again (now 35 years and counting) is becoming an African Cup folklore.
Cameroon beat favourites Senegal on penalties and now face Ghana as they attempt to secure a place in the AFCON final for the first time since 2008. Nine years ago, the Indomitable Lions were beaten by Egypt, also, a semi finalist in Gabon and will be hoping to go one better after a 15-year wait for the African title.
Ghana is in the last four for the sixth straight tournament. En route to the semi-finals, Jordan Ayew gave Ghana the lead and elder brother, Andre Ayew swept in a 78th-minute penalty for the winner to beat Congo at Stade d’Oyem Ghana lost out in penalty shootout to Ivory Coast in the deciding game at the last African Cup. The experience two years ago left Andre Ayew sobbing uncontrollably and inconsolable.
The painful memories will likely keep Ghanaian feet on the ground this year, even after getting past Congo, a tricky adversary.
The Black Stars are also sweating on the fitness of their top striker, Al Ahli’s Asamoah Gyan and also their reliable defender, Baba Rahman who plies his trade for Schalke 04 of Germany.
When Gyan limped off the pitch during Ghana’s narrow defeat to Egypt in their last group game, the Black Stars’ AFCON campaign “seemingly’’ looked gloomier.
Gyan, Ghana’s leader of the line for the best part of a decade, has a groin problem and his availability, or otherwise, for Sunday’s quarter-finals will have a bearing on morale. Gyan will feel as frustrated as anybody if he misses out of the semi-finals after watching from the bench during the team’s quarter-final victory over DR Congo.
Five times a semi-finalist at AFCON, and his country’s all-time leading scorer in the tournament, he has two runners-up medals and a bronze medal in the competition but has yet no first prize.
Ghana will be forgiven for thinking that this should be their year, given that so many heavyweight teams have fallen before and after the last-eight stage. However, they need vigilance and their entire arsenal at their disposal if they hope to get past a very compact Cameroonian side.
But the motivation to end the long wait for another continental trophy would surely ginger them to give everything they have against tough tackling Cameroon, who have shown that they mean business in Gabon.
The other semi-final encounter pits the Pharaohs of Egypt against the Stallions of Burkina Faso at the Stade d’Angondje in Angondjé on Febuary. 1.
The fallen giants of the AFCON are rising again as Egypt became the final team on Sunday to force its way into the semi-finals amid late drama.
The record seven-time champion, held back by years of political upheaval back home, returned to the last four for the first time since 2010 with an 87th-minute winner over Morocco in the last quarter-final in Gabon.