Football's most prestigious tournament - the world cup, wasn't just a first for me in 2006 but also Ghana - my home nation. The first world cup I have some memory of was the 2002 world cup hosted by Korea and Japan. I remember bits of how a little 8 year old boy (me) and his cousin supported the German team that lost to a brilliant Brazil squad in the finals. My memory about that tournament is so faint that when I thought of the 2002 world cup just now, I only remembered Oliver Kahn, Germany's iconic goalkeeper and Ronaldo, an extraordinary goal poacher who was at the peak of his prowess.
Germany 2006 world cup was eagerly anticipated for so many reasons but none as important to my class as my physical education (P. E) teacher informing us that a huge chunk of our P. E examination that school term would come from the world cup which would have ended by the time of the exams.
The world cup fever enveloped the whole nation. Previous generations of the Black-stars, our nation team had never made it to the world cup. Even teams which contained legends like Abedi Pele and Tony Yeboah. I never watched them play or at least i have no memory of ever doing so but my dad tells me they were truly great with Abedi even winning the Champions league with Olympique Marseille. Newspapers were talking about it for weeks and permutations about our chances of making it to the round of 16 were on. "Football mathematicians" as we affectionately call them here were fairly optimistic but the general feeling was that of pessimism and rightly so. No one expected Ghana, first timers to make it out of group E which contained; Italy (eventual winners of the world cup), the Czech Republic (the then 2nd best team in the world per the FIFA ranking) and USA. Our chances weren't just bad, they were non-existent for some of us, but hey, we were in the world cup!
The day of the opening games and ceremony came. Like any other day, I rode my bicycle to school. The world cup is all we could talk about while cleaning up before lessons started, at break and even whenever there was no teacher in the class room. Every single one of us had this particular set of pages from one of the national newspapers. It contained a detailed fixture list with blank score boxes in which you could simply write down the scores after each match. No one was taking this P. E exams lightly, especially because internet wasn't as wide spread and easily accessible as it is today especially not in a small nation like Ghana. We had to keep records of everything ourselves. The paper even contained fixture details of how the next rounds would be played. Blank spaces available for you to write both the name of teams involved in the knockout fixture and the scoreline. My friends and I used to call it, "recording the world cup made easy".
Everything was set and school was supposed to close about 30 minutes before kickoff that Friday, if I remember correctly. Time which I estimated was more than enough to get me home at the very least before the kickoff. Nature had other plans for us though, about an hour to closing time, clouds gathered and we were trapped in school. To make matters even worse, as soon as it started pouring, there was a power outage. We couldn't believe our lack. In our darkened classrooms with heavy rain pouring on our roof, class couldn't continue. As fate would have it, my science teacher who doubled up as our P. E teacher was in charge of our last lesson that day. We discussed the tournament and he dropped some hits as to what questions which should expect. Some things I remember which indeed were present in the exams included; who the top scorer was (Miroslav Klose, the eventual winner), some rules of the game, who Ghana's first world cup scorer was (Asamoah Gyan) just to mention a few.
About 15 minutes or so into the match with the rain still pouring, our luck finally turned. The power was back and the whole school quickly rushed into the teacher's common room where the largest television set in my school stood. We couldn't wait for the television set to come on. It finally did and there was immediately a huge cheer. 1-1 appeared on the screen. Who scored first and who equalized? We asked ourselves as if any one of us had previously been watching the match. A second cheer soon followed as Klose made it 2-1. It was after the replay the scoreline was expanded to show that Philip Lahm had given Germany an early lead. It was an intriguing match which ended 4-2 in favor of the German team. Another thrilling moment was in the dying moments of the game when a German named David Odonkor came on. I had personally never heard of him and I am quite sure most of the rest hadn't either. We were thrilled because Odonkor is a common family name of certain tribes in Ghana and we hypothesized that he was definitely Ghana origin.
The rain as it turns out was quite heavy and rained for long while. My dad had to pick me up on his way back from work. Putting we bicycle in the back of his car. He apparently had called home before leaving work and was told I wasn't home yet so he decided to pass by. A beautiful ending to a nice opening day as he had some tasty treats for me on our way home.
Ghana faced off with Italy in our first ever world cup match the following Monday night. We never really got going and lost to the eventual winners 2-0. None of the other African nations recording a victory in the first round of group games.
Ghana's next match was over the weekend against the Czech Republic with still no victory for an African participant. Ivory Coast, our neighboring had the lost a day or two earlier and the mood was not the greatest. Robin van Persie leading the Dutch to victory with a beautifully taken free-kick.
I can't quite remember where I was coming from when I heard a huge cheer and people running out onto the streets in jubilation. This would be a usual sighting in the next few games and subsequent world cup matches in my neighborhood. Asamoah Gyan had just scored Ghana's first ever world cup which was also the fastest goal of the tournament in under 2 minutes. Overwhelmed with joy I joined in the celebrations immediately. It was later in the game I saw a highlight of the goal. Gyan beating Cech with a lovely finish. We played brilliantly through against the 2nd best team in the globe at the time and were duly rewarded with a second late on. Sulley Muntari putting the game to bed with a late goal against a team which contained not only Cech, but Nedved (previous winner of the ballon d'or) and Rosicky (one of Czech's and the world's newest big things). And with that victory optimism grew among fans and undoubtedly the nation team. Ghana becoming the only African team with a win after 2 rounds in the group stage.
Asamoah Gyan would move on to bigger things on the international stage. He is currently Ghana's all time top scorer and the highest scoring African international player.
Last group match was against USA, who managed a draw against Italy in their second match and still had hopes of qualifying if results in the Italy vs Czech Republic went their way. After the match started, it was quite clear the black-stars had only one thing in mind and that was winning. Haminu Draman giving us the lead. We were pegged back by USA through Clint Dempsey. It wasn't 1-1 for long as we were awarded a penalty. Our captain, Stephen "Tornado" Appiah finishing from the spot before half-time. We held on to a priceless victory but eventually finishing 2nd behind Italy who had 7 points after beating Czech Republic. Ghana was the sole surviving African representative, and you just had the feeling the whole continent was behind us. We had a major task ahead of us though, reigning world champions, Brazil were the winner of their group and faced us next.
Before our match against Brazil, a feisty encounter behind Portugal and the Netherlands had ensued. Countless yellow cards and 4 red cards, two each for the Portuguese and the Dutch were produced in a 1-0 victory in favor of Portugal.
We were manhandled in the round of 16 fixture against Brazil. An early goal from Ronaldo after he rounded our goalkeeper still plays in my mind from time to time like it were yesterday. Brazil ended up beating us 3-0 and officially Africa no longer had a representative at the world cup. We were sad but extremely proud of our troopers because we didn't expect such an outing at the tournament, especially after our shock early exit from the 2006 African Cup of Nations at the beginning of the year.
The world cup wasn't over yet just because Ghana had been eliminated. The quarter finals were just as thrilling as the tournament had been up to that stage. Germany beating Argentina on penalties, memories of Podolski scoring in the shootout spring to mind. Portugal also seeing off England on penalties. Owen Hargreaves (such a beautiful name I thought) getting England's only goal in a shootout which saw players like Lampard and Gerrard miss from the spot.
France vs Brazil was definitely the match I enjoyed the most, my then favorite player - Thierry Henry getting the only goal in what was probably the best world cup match I had ever watched. Zidane who I think had come out of retirement to lead his nation did it in style. Pulling the strings of the game.
In the semifinals, Italy beat host Germany in the late minutes of extra time with two quick goals. Grosso (another name etched in memory) getting the goals along with veteran Del Piero. France beat Portugal as well. Captain Zizou scoring from the spot in a 1-0 victory.
In the 3rd place playoff fixture, Germany restoring their pride with a victory over Portugal. I can't remember the score because quite honestly only one match mattered at that point.
Italy vs France in the 2006 world cup and from my standpoint, France were the favorites. A blistering start and France were awarded a penalty. Zidane dispatching from the spot with the help of the crossbar. There were doubts about the goal but the referee didn't have any, pointing to the center circle. Replays showing the ball had indeed bounced behind the goal line before coming out.
Materazzi, the man involved in the infamous headbutting from Zidane equalized for Italy. It was a terribly close encounter, but I remember France having the edge. Zidane however, blow the wind out of a whole nation’s sails when he headbutted Materazzi in extra time. An action to this date I think has yet to apologize to the Materazzi because he insists Materazzi made some derogatory comments which the player of course denied. France without their skipper and talisman eventually lost on penalties. Trezeguet missed the only penalty in the shootout with Grosso (the name I earlier said was etched in memory) scoring the winning penalty.
Zidane eventually came 2nd to Cannavaro in the Ballon d'or and FIFA world player of the year awards, most likely due to the infamous headbutting incident.
A world cup filled with goals, drama, shocks and a nationwide sense of togetherness.
This was my 2006 world cup experience!
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