Sports News of Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Source: Enock Muchinjo (CP)

African hopes won't put any extra pressure on Ghana

Milan Rajevac wants his Ghana lineup to provide everyone in Africa with something to cheer about in the knockout rounds of the first World Cup on the continent.

Ghana leads Group D with four points and needs to avoid a loss against three-time champion Germany on Wednesday to ensure it advances.

South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria are already out of contention, while Ivory Coast and Algeria have only slim chances of progressing. That leaves Ghana as Africa's best chance of representation after the group stage.

Rajevac hopes African fans will now divert all their attention to Ghana.

"By being the only African team that has realistic qualification chances, most of the African fans will be behind us," Rajevac said. "It will give us extra motivation."

Ghana opened with a 1-0 win over Serbia and held Australia to a 1-1 draw. Germany thrashed Australia 4-0, then had a surprising 1-0 loss to Serbia.

"It's good for us to be in this position," Rajevac said. "It gives us a certain amount of satisfaction ... But it doesn't add pressure at all.

"Germany are ranked higher than us, yes, but we ... are in a better place than the other teams in the group."

Both Ghana's goals in the tournament have come from penalties converted by striker Asamoah Gyan. But the goal drought from open play does not concern Rajevac.

"Penalties are part of the game," he said. "As far as we are concerned, no goal has been given to us as a present. Of course we have not used some of our opportunities from open play, but we also have not conceded a lot of goals, which is a good thing for us."

Rajevac would not be drawn into revealing if Sully Muntari will start the match after the Inter Milan midfielder was reportedly reprimanded by team officials for an outburst against the coach following the match against Australia.

"All 23 players are fit and available for selection," Rajevac said. "As of the starting lineup, I'm still discussing it with my colleagues."

A feature of the match will be the rivalry of brothers Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jerome Boateng, who are on opposing sides.

Kevin-Prince Boateng played junior soccer for Germany before opting to represent Ghana.

Rajevac didn't expect any family feuding to mar the match.

"We've often talked about this, it's a creation of the media," Rajevac said. "There is no problem at all. Even if there was a problem, Kevin is a professional and he knows how to deal with it.

"Even if he is brothers with Jerome, they wont be brothers on the field."