The nation is quiet. Once again we made it so far and then just like that, beaten by Zambia, a team which up until now have not really made a mark in football. It would have been the second tournament in a row that we made it to the finals and many believed this was our year, most of the top teams like Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt did not qualify and our only real challenge would have been our neighbours La Cote d’Ivoire. It would have been so nice to see the boys hold the cup, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

As I say, I’m no football expert, I don’t watch football avidly like the rest of the country. I claim to be a Chelsea fan but apart from Lampart, Terry, Drogba and Essien, if I walked down the street and a Chelsea player was to come up to me waiving a chelsea flag and shouted in my ear that he was a player, I could not say with certainty that he was actually on the team. However, from what I could see Ghana’s team were just lucky. Even with the so called “cheap” teams they only managed to score one goal here and one goal there, they are hardly the Brazilians of Africa they once were referred to. With Tunisia they were lucky. Even with the Zambia game, the referee tried to put extra time on the extra time but it just wasn’t meant to be.

My theory is, its the same as the English team, too many celebrities. Added to that in Ghana’s case we have too many old waddies who refuse to give their real age and admit that they should retire and give way to younger more energetic players. Their bones are old so get injured easily and cannot afford to hurt themselves as once the tournament is over they have to go back to their European (mainly) clubs who keep them in the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Their loyalties lie only with their club and don’t really have that sense of national pride. From what I could see it was the young Ayew brother’s that really took charge on the pitch, the almighty Asamoah Gyan our so called top striker, well most of the time I hardly even noticed he was playing. Commentators are saying that the coach made a substitution error in replacing Gyan with Prince Tagoe, in this last game and probably it was but all hope was lost anyway.

Tonight the drinking spots will be full of analysis and commentary, everybody is a football coach in this country male, female, old, young, everybody has an opinion. But it will not be as animated as the commentary on Sunday, as alas it will be like whispering in the wind. There words will have no basis because the final will be against two teams, neither of them would be Ghana. There is no reserve team, no second chance.

Others will say nothing, and commiserate over a beer, some will take to bed early. Others will link the tragedy (I tell you it is taken very personal here) to politics. They will say it is another thing the president did wrong, or the opposition have done juju. Whatever the case, wherever the blame goes the whole of Ghana is sad right now. Ghanaians all over the world are sad right now. My facebook page has been filled with comments from friends and family and friends of Ghana telling of their woes of this great disappointment. I actually want to post that its only a game but I’m afraid I might get hate posts back, so I quietly read and reserve my comments to my self.

As I said, I will support my neighbours herein, but its anybody’s game, 2008 we expected to win as the host nation, Cote d’Ivoire were a strong second, we ended up playing them for 3rd and 4th place. Who knows if history will repeat itself 4 years on.

God bless our homeland Ghana. We’ll try again in another two years.

That’s my football obsession done with now though, I will not have access to the Euros so 2 years more, double whammy with the African and World cups.