World Cup maestro Bora lends Ghana support

The cheerful grey-haired bespectacled man sitting alone in the stands watching Ghana train here on Tuesday was none other than World Cup maestro Bora Milutinovic.

The 65-year-old, who is the only manager to lead five different countries to the World Cup, has flown in to Angola to offer support to his good friend and fellow Serb, Ghana coach Milovan Rajevic.

Milutinovic knows a thing or two about Nigeria, Ghana’s Africa Cup of Nations semi-final rivals, as he led the Super Eagles to the 1998 World Cup finals.

“Nigeria’s advantage is they have players with experience, but Ghana have good, young players, and importantly they seem to have momentum behind them,” he told AFP.

“I’m friends with the coach, he’s done a great job with Ghana. His team have a positive attitude.

“I know they didn’t start this competition very well, but they are gaining experience and don’t forget have qualified for the World Cup.”

In his widely-travelled career, Milutinovic took Mexico to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1986 before also guiding Costa Rica (1990), United States (1994) and Nigeria (1998) to the second round.

He was also in charge of China when it played its first World Cup in 2002. He has also coached the Honduras and Jamaican national teams.

His last international position was with 2007 Asian champions Iraq, whom he managed at last year’s World Cup dress rehearsal the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

He predicted an open game at Luanda’s 11 November stadium in Thursday’s semi-final.

As for potential winners he said he had been impressed by defending champions Egypt, who face Algeria in Thursday’s second semi-final in Benguela.

“Egypt are playing very well. They competed in the Confederations Cup last year, and it should be an exciting game against Algeria.”

Looking ahead to the first World Cup on the African continent he added: “World opinion says it’s time for an African team to win the World Cup, but it won’t be easy, teams have to have constant experience at this level.”