Last-Gasp Ghana Hero Urges Caution

[Folami David]

After the exhilarating encounter, the euphoric Black Satellites began their frenzied celebrations with body language and facial expressions conveying utter conviction and belief, as they contemplated a last four berth which looked more than unlikely just a week or so ago.
.
"We lost our first two matches at the tournament, but still made it through thanks to a big win over USA," Ebenezer Assifuah told Fifa.com after the final whistle on Sunday. "We came from behind against Portugal in the Round of 16, and now we've beaten Chile, even though they were in the lead. Believe me, we're bursting with confidence at the moment."
.
The 20-year-old striker, who plays his club football for Liberty Professionals FC, can be justifiably proud of his performance. He scored a vital brace, including the winning goal in time added on at the end of extra time, while making a huge contribution to the 2009 tournament winners in defeating the Chileans at Ali Sami Yen Arena in Istanbul. "I'm so happy. I wasn't able to score in all of our group games, but today I've got two. We have a wonderful team and I was able to help today," continued Assifuah, managing to combine elation with clearly sincere humility.
.
"We made a bizarre start to the tournament," coach Sellas Tetteh acknowledged in conversation withFIFA.com a few days ago, but there is no denying now that the Black Satellites are on fire at the finals in Turkey. However, despite their rapid progress over the last few weeks, the West Africans are firmly resisting the temptation to overreact, as Assifuah insisted: "Morale is soaring, and you can understand that. But I want to warn against us thinking we can rely on always turning games around."
.
The pacy and skilled Ghanaian No 17 is already looking ahead to the semifinal clash with France in Bursa. "If we start believing we can allow ourselves to fall behind again, we'd be completely wrong.
.
We've used up all our luck. There's no way we can keep on conceding goals and let our opponents to take the lead," he declared. Assifuah spoke these carefully chosen words to a backing track of his teammates' wild celebrations in the depths of the stadium, but his undoubted confidence was shot through with realism: "We can win the World Cup, but things have to change in terms of letting in goals."

[Shola Sholaz]

Ghana would definately do very well in the competition. They've been very fantastic so far in the competition.