Africa waits for history-making Ghana, says Gyan

Africa has been yearning for the crowning moment awaiting Ghana in Friday’s World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay at Soccer City, star striker Asamoah Gyan said on Thursday.

Ghana are being urged on by the entire one billion-strong continent and are bidding to become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Ghana’s ‘Black Stars’, who are the lone flag-waver for Africa in the first World Cup staged on the continent, are only the third African team along with Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) to have reached the last eight at the World Cup.

Gyan said he has an acute sense of the football history beckoning for Ghana, who have become Africa’s leading team under Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac.

“It will be history in the making. We are the third African country to have qualified for the quarter-finals,” Gyan told a match-eve press conference at Soccer City.

“It is going to be something I won’t to forget and I hope Africa is also waiting for this moment.

“This is a big opportunity for us Africans. This World Cup is in Africa. No other African will be supporting any team but us.

“I don’t predict the outcome of games, but we will work hard and come out victorious.”

Gyan, who is one of Ghana’s stand-outs at the tournament with three goals, said his teammates did not feel the overwhelming pressure as Africans expect them to take the next big step for African football.

“We are representing Africa. We are making people proud. There is no pressure on us because we know how to psyche ourselves,” he said.

“It’s a good feeling that all of the African continent and the whole of Ghana are behind us.

“We know how to soak up the pressure. I believe in my friends in the Black stars although there will be many people watching us we are ready to play any team at all.”