[ 2014-04-02 ]

Gyan: World Cup group is a challenge
After two-straight impressive appearances at the
World Cup, the Black Stars are aware that Ghanaian
expectations are very high though they find
themselves in a rather tough situation in Brazil.

Asamoah Gyan, captain of the national team accepts
that the entire nation expects an improvement on
their quarter-final finish in the previous
competition four years ago.

Amid the high expectation, Ghana can look no
further beyond the group stages where they come up
against Germany, the United States and Portugal.

Leaping to the knockout stages of the World Cup
from the group, according to the Al-Ain striker
will be a big challenge for the Black Stars.

“Definitely, it’s going to be a challenge,”
Black Stars captain, Gyan said.

“Portugal has got a great team. Germany, of
course, is the favourite; that’s what people are
saying. Statistically, they are the favourite in
the group, but you might not know what is going to
happen.

“Any country that qualifies for the World Cup is
a good one. That is where it’s a bit tricky, so
we have to just watch out.”

With four goals and in eight games at the World
Cup to his credit, Gyan believes that past
experiences will put them a good stead to manage
their group, which has been described as the
“The Group of Death”.

“Yes, I see it like that, but football doesn’t
talk about names anymore. We’ve done it before;
Ghana has done it before,” he said.

“In 2006, we were in the same group with Italy.
Italy went through to win the Cup and we made it
instead the US, who were rated 4th in the world
around that time and Czech Republic was rated 5th
in the world at that time and Ghana was the
underdog. And we were able to deliver.”

“The same thing happened in 2010. We were the
same underdog and we were able to deliver. So, it
has happened before and I don’t feel any
pressure at all.

“We’ve got a lot of experience in the World
Cup. We’re going to make sure we make every
Ghanaian proud by playing our normal game and
we’ll see what happens.”

Source - Ghana FA

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