THE LENNY BRISCOE II REPORT

....We saw the Tahitian national team members holding the hands of their Spanish counterparts a few seconds longer than necessary in the handshakes before kick-off at the Confederations Cup. You knew the Tahitians were going to get a stuffing and they did. Zambia played against Ghana and the Chipolopolos thought Michael Essien was a walking TV. They watched and watched and watched him. You knew they were going to lose. They lost. So the point is that too many times, too many players bask in the moment of sharing the same pitch with their “heroes” instead of trying to win the bloody game! Now, these Pharaohs – Ghana’s opponents - are not playing in a domestic league. Political upheaval within the great nation of Egypt has affected domestic football but paradoxically not the national team. They cruised through the first bit of the qualifiers barely breaking a sweat. They made mince meat of Zimbabwe, Guinea and Mozambique (I think) home and away. A few of my Ghanaian frien

                                      RUBBISH REASON WHY GHANA CAN BEAT EGYPT Growing up in Tema, Ghana, we saw lots of footballers come and go. Mostly, good ones. Oh, you didn’t know? Tema has produced generation after generation of world-class footballers for Ghana. Think Joe Addo, Simon Addo, Ishmael Addo, Daniel Addo, Sebastian Barnes, Shamo Quaye(I bet you didn’t know he was Tema-based, did you?), Paa Joe Kuma, Attakora Amaniampong, Abdul Razak Ismail, Joe Fameyeh, Matthew “Klinsmann” Amoah etc etc. Even the bronze-winning Ghana U-20 side that played in the recent World Youth Tournament in Turkey (2013) had no less than SEVEN Tema-based “youngsters”. Fact. Now, when we growing up, there was an already grown-up neighbourhood champion footballer who had a call-up into the senior national team. I am not going to confirm if his name is amongst the ones aforementioned . This footballer was at least a decade older but he was after a girl in our circles. On paper