GHANA AT THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP!

Ghana subdued despite World Cup first
By Kwaku Sakyi-Addo BBC News, Accra

There are few orchestrated celebrations of Ghana's participation. The 2006 World Cup has finally kicked off. For Ghanaians, the event is special because the national football team, the Black Stars, are playing for the first time. Their opening game is on Monday against Italy. However, whether it is due to a sudden attack of collective panic, or some illogical but more urgent priority, the mood in the capital is anything but expectant.

There is no orchestrated celebration of the country's participation in this global sport festival and that, some soccer analysts say, is because the entire Ghana Football Association is in Germany. "They've left nobody behind to whip things up," said one pundit. When we have a friendly match and we're able to win, then the demand for the shirts is very high. But when we lose then business goes down - SamuelTrader.

Indeed, there are no special flags or buntings dancing against the Atlantic wind. And even on the countless and ever-chattering radio stations, the dominant conversation is about a rather tedious dispute over junior doctors' wages, and the predictable proceedings of a parliamentary sub-committee, which is vetting deputies who have received promotion to full ministers. But if you keep faith with the dial long enough, a commercial break would sometimes yield the sensuous peals of "Put your Heart in it."

This is a sponsored cheer-song in which individual members of the Black Stars pledge to play with their hearts and not just their limbs. Or you might hear the more rugged and made-for-the-terraces "God Bless Our Homeland", which is inspired by the national anthem and sponsored by Joy FM, a radio station in the capital. There are also a few billboards paid for by a rice importer, featuring the team outfitted colourlessly in black and white.

However, in a few shopping streets in the capital, Accra, some young entrepreneurs seem to be keeping faith with the team and maintaining the season's spirit, whilst making a small profit. Some young businessmen are tapping into the tournament. Splashes of colour and hope are evident in parts of Cantonments Road (also known as Oxford Street) at Osu, in the south of the city. Here, street vendors sell the brighter and more preferred variations of Black Stars shirts, featuring the national colours of red, gold and green.

"For a long time business has been slow," says Samuel who, rather curiously, is wearing an Ivorian team shirt and a hat with Ghana's colours. "I was supporting Ivory Coast during the African Cup in Egypt, so it's just an old shirt I'm wearing," Samuel explains apologetically. He says business is starting to pick up with the national team's recent trial match victories against Jamaica and South Korea. "When we have a friendly match and we're able to win, then the demand for the shirts is very high. But when we lose then business goes down," says Samuel. Even so, not everyone is harvesting from the team's recent outings.

"Even now, people are not buying," says Kwame Opoku, an itinerant vendor who is advertising a Michael Essien jersey in one hand, and in the other a shirt with the inscription "I Love Ghana." "Today is almost over and I've only sold three or four shirts."

But on Ghana's chances at the tournament Opoku seems to have the early morning optimism of the hawker that he is. Maybe everybody is quiet because they're praying for the Black Stars.
Vendor Kwame Opoku"The Black Stars will do very well. I'm sure the cup will come to Ghana, from the way they're playing now." That, of course, is as likely as a Trinidad and Tobago-Ghana final in Berlin. But asked why the national mood remained so sombre when history was about to be made, Opoku put it down to meditation. "Maybe everybody is quiet because they're praying for the Black Stars."

A burly customer shopping in vain for a Stephen Appiah shirt in XXL has a more philosophical take on it. "I think that as Ghanaians, we like to keep our feelings to ourselves; we're a bit conservative." Except him. "Me? I'm really excited!" he says, shaking both fists in the air. Whatever he is on, could he please pass it around? Unless, perhaps, this is just the calm before the ecstasy.

Maybe this is a nation united in deep breath, waiting to exhale.

BBC NEWS REPORT.