Today’s match is to use a cliche, the ‘mother of all battles.’ Why on earth they never say father beats me but let’s go with our maternal instincts on this one and even call it the grandmother of all battles. And just in case you have been living underneath a rock, this is what we are talking about. 

And as if we didn’t have enough problems, another man down.  Of course, if we are to win by any means necessary that shouldn’t matter, should it? We should even field nine men while we are at it. I keed, I keed. We probably need to sneak in a 12th man to get around that stout Burkinabe defence. More seriously though, all these injuries may force the coach to play the players he has in positions that they are familiar with. For instance a right winger should play on the right wing, a left winger on the left and so on. And to me that’s a good thing. The time for experimenting is over. 

In better news, one of our more experienced players should be on the pitch. Speaking of the pitch, apparently the Ghanaian government asked a groundsman, Frank Boahene, the man who supervised the cultivation of grass at the CAN 2008 to advice the players on how to approach the field in Luanda. Clearly no stone is being left unturned. 

Meanwhile try not to look in envy at some of the participating teams. They have had it easier in having three games to try and qualify. We can aim all of our toes or fingers (whichever is most menacing) at our neighbors to the right if we don’t qualify. But never mind, I promised not to look back.

So to recap. If we score 1/2 a goal which I don’t think is possible, Ghana qualifies. 1-0 to Ghana we qualify. 10-9 to Ghana we qualify. 0-0 draw, then it’s suck your fingers, flow the tears, sulk your way back to grandmother who clearly decided it wasn’t our day. Good Luck to the Boys!!!