Of all the games that the Black Stars have ever played in Kumasi – and there have been a great many – one stands out.
No, not the 3-0 thumping of South Africa in 2004 that breathed life into Ghana’s ultimately successful bid to reach a maiden FIFA World Cup (Germany 2006); heck, not even the incredible fightback that saw the Black Stars secure bronze medals at the expense of neighbouring Ivory Coast days after missing out on the chance to play for gold as hosts of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Remarkable as those results – and other contenders – were, none quite matches the stellar show the Black Stars put on when Egypt visited for the first of two playoff games to decide which of the two teams reached the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
An Egypt side that certainly wasn’t short on star power slumped to the record African champions’ heaviest defeat in years, surgically taken apart by a stunningly ruthless Black Stars that ran out 6-1 winners on the evening. That big result reduced the reverse, won 2-1 by the Pharaohs, to a mere formality and set Ghana irreversibly on their way to the finals in Brazil.
But that was back when the Black Stars could do no wrong in anyone’s eyes, the halcyon days when the country was still enamoured of the team. That all changed some eight months after the Egyptians drowned, following the Black Stars’ pathetic participation at the Mundial.
It became apparent that the team was taking the almost unconditional support they enjoyed from their compatriots for granted — and that truth, when it really hit home, left an entire nation dejected.
Nowhere was that felt more intensely than in Kumasi, the team’s beating heart.
You see, Kumasi has always – as they say – ‘understood the assignment’. In its Baba Yara Sports Stadium, more electricity has been generated to power the Black Stars’ dreams and hopes than the Akosombo Dam could ever supply the entire country with at any given time.
The Garden City – as Kumasi is affectionately known – was eager to make the players know just what it thought of the sickening episode that had played out during the team’s ill-fated expedition to South America, and the opportunity to do so came when the Black Stars returned for their first game after the World Cup.
While the lads knew better than to expect a red-carpet treatment, what awaited them was way beyond their worst nightmares. Not many fans turned up for the game, and the few that bothered to come along were only in the mood to cheer the Ugandans’ every move (and their goal) and jeer at the Ghanaians’ every move (and their goal) in a 1-1 draw.
It was, in effect, a home game for the travellers.
The verdict was unambiguous and unanimous: the Black Stars were no longer welcome in this city — not in the foreseeable future, anyway.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) was thus forced to find less hostile venues around the country for the team’s next few games, and they wouldn’t be back in Kumasi until over a year later.
Perhaps it was because lowly Comoros were the guests on that occasion in November 2015, or perhaps the Kumasi crowd was still a little cross with the team, but the numbers present to see a 2-0 victory was anything but impressive; at least, though, the team was grateful not to have been booed off this time.
Altogether, Ghana played just four games at the Baba Yara between September 2014 and September 2017, winning just two, their last being an insipid draw with Congo (not the DR; the other one) that didn’t exactly help the team’s chances of reaching the 2018 World Cup.
After more than four years away, the easily recognisable Black Stars bus graces the streets of Kumasi again this week, as the country braces itself for the first leg of a crunch contest with archrivals Nigeria in the hunt for a ticket to Qatar 2022.
It hasn’t been quite the triumphant entry – certainly not Jesus-on-a-colt-to-Jerusalem kind of reception – even if many who have sighted the contingent making its rounds through town haven’t passed up the chance to wave.
The question, though, remains: in just what sort of mood will Kumasi show up for Friday night’s game?
Well, to be sure, there will be none of the abuse hurled at the team all those years ago; that’s pretty much water under the bridge now.
But the Black Stars’ poor performance at the AFCON last January – an all-time low in Ghana’s history at the competition – is still very fresh on the minds of Ghanaians, raising genuine doubts about just how much appetite for national team football exists at present.
And there is still considerable anti-Black Stars sentiment bubbling in the city and on social media, after Kumasi’s top team, Asante Kotoko, had its players overlooked in naming the latest Ghana roster despite quite a few of them excelling in the impressive season the Porcupine Warriors are currently having.
There has been talk of a potential boycott by some of these aggrieved fans, threatening to drain the Baba Yara of its lifeblood, that massive presence which could carry the Black Stars through a game every bit as consequential as the aforementioned duel with Egypt. How serious such intentions are, and how significant or adverse the effects would be, remain to be seen.
The VIP seats have been sold out, true, but that doesn’t really tell us much about what to expect; it’s usually those who are going to fill all the other terraces that usually drive the team farthest with their sheer energy and passion.
That’s the Kumasi the Black Stars are used to, the Kumasi they haven’t experienced in a long while, and the Kumasi they need onside to get the latest job done.
