On Friday, this week, Africa was hit by a tragedy when Ghana was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the World Cup by Uruguay in a scintillating match played at the sprawling soccer city stadium in Johannesburg.
Ghana’s defeat on post match penalties came barely three hours after the nation with the biggest black population in the world and five times World Cup champions, Brazil, was knocked out of the same tournament by The Netherlands.
If Brazil’s defeat against the country that gave the world what has come to be known as TOTAL FOOTBALL (all in attack and all in defence) was painful both for the samba nation and Africa in general (for historical reasons), then Ghana’s defeat was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking for the simple reason that for many decades, Brazil had provided Africans, especially during World Cup tournaments, with a vibrant soccer nation they could always look up to both for support and inspiration.
When Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan blew out a spot-kick he was widely expected to slot in and give his country the golden opportunity of getting, for the first time in the World Cup history into the semifinal, he equally blew up Africa’s chances.
One major lesson that can be drawn from the on-going World Cup in South Africa is that success in the tournament is linked to a country’s economic success.
Most of the country’s that have done well, in their own, right in this tournament are equally well placed economically.
Take African representatives as a case in point. Ghana whose national soccer team, the Black Stars was knocked in the quarterfinals is currently blessed with a vibrant economy.
And in terms of democratic growth and good governance, the land of Dr Kwame Nkkrumah is second to none in the continent.
Indeed, it is indisputable democratic growth and economic wellbeing in other African representatives in the tournament such as Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa is questionable.
The other five African nations which were knocked out in the preliminaries, including the so called Africa’s economic power house-South Africa, are beset with one simmering conflict or another.
If it is not the economy, then it is zenophobia, if it is not religious conflict, then it is wealth distribution related conflict and if it is not racism or tribalism that threatens to dismember a nation then it is a stinking dictatorship!
Ghana succeeded to reach where it reached, the quarterfinals, hence becoming the third nation after Cameroon and Senegal to reach that stage, because it has managed over the years to build a modern, democratic nation.
It was because the state Ghana is presently in that early this year its U-20 won in Egypt, for the first time in its history, the World Cup.
Members of the Ghanaian squad that lost to Uruguay last Friday were not simply picked from here and there in the west African nation, but rather came from soccer academies.
For instance, seven members of the U-20 World Cup winning team were included into the senior Ghanaian team to replace, among others, injured Michael Essien.
A major lesson for the rest in the continent, as far as the present World Cup is concerned, is that they cannot reach that far as long as they continue to depend on players picked from this or that club in this or that area and in the same manner Tanzania presently does!
The present World Cup has shown that the tournament is becoming increasingly scientific, requiring well worked preparations and use of highly trained coaches/managers.
The game has become so scientific that a loss of one player through red-carding exposes a team to outright defeat!
In fact, the only country that escaped defeat after one its players was red-carded was Uruguay!
Other teams such as Algeria, Nigeria and German lost their players after being red-carded and went on to lose their matches!
That is how technical football has become. What does this mean, especially for a country like Tanzania?
It simply means that gone are the days when the bulk of Tanzania players were primary school leavers.
Present soccer requires academically sound and highly disciplined players who can closely follow up modern day soccer training.
The way a modern day soccer team is established and trained to a winning outfit is not different from the manner a chief executive officer runs his or her business.
And unless Tanzanians realize that, they should simply forget about winning in continental or World Cup tournaments.
By Attilio Tagalile
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