Our editorial for Thursday, last week titled ‘Black Stars, you can beat Portugal’ encouraged the Black Stars that they could beat Portugal in their first Group H encounter that day at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Unfortunately poor officiating robbed the Stars of victory and we are happy the biased refereeing has roundly been condemned across the globe.
As it is in the public domain, the Black Stars lost gallantly to the pampered Portuguese.
Today, the Black Stars play South Korea at the Education City Stadium at 1 p.m.
As we always do, we encourage the Black Stars to put behind them the refereeing unrighteousness on Thursday and also ignore the surprise South Korea sprang by holding South American football powerhouse Uruguay to a 0-0 draw the same day at the same Education City Stadium.
That result obviously favoursthe South Koreans as they come in with a point to ginger them to look for more, whereas the Stars face them with no point.
The Black Stars must have nothing to fear because a remark South Korean coach Paulo Bento and his Uruguay counterpart Diego Alonso shared that they were both satisfied with the 0-0 draw result is instructive.
It means in a way that each team had some weaknesses they thought the opponents could exploit to their advantage but did not happen.
That impression also tells the Black Stars bench that by this time they should know what to capitaliseon to their advantage to beat South Korea first and mesmerise Uruguay if the Stars must proceed to round 16 of the ongoing World Cup.
That is not to say South Korea or Uruguay are walkovers, not at all.
What we are driving at is that teams go into matches with threats and the common mission to win the game, yet at the end of the day, one team would triumph.
Sometimes, even the under-dogs triumph because of their positive posture, commitment and the right level of concentration, making sure they plug the loopholes as when they realise them.
The Stars must go in to meet the South Koreans with much sportsmanship and discipline because the Asians have so far proven themselves as a disciplined side.
Even though there is no doubt that the Black Stars were robbed on Thursday, FIFA has not changed anything in their favour, meaning that their four yellow cards stand whereas South Korea have received none.
Meanwhile, the FIFA rule is that if players receive two yellow cards in two different matches, they are automatically suspended from their next match at the World Cup, while two yellow cards in the same match would see them sent off.
The Stars bench must, therefore, adopt workable strategies, not unnecessary aggressiveness, and constantly be vigilant enough to identify the slightest flaws and rein in the players.
The players must also check themselves on the field to avoid unnecessary acts like rough tackling and allowing their opponents to score goals they think are “off-side”.
They should do all they can to beat South Korea and have the basis to make the Uruguayans know that their meeting with the Stars on December 2 is a game of struggle and also revenge with regard to their ungodly behaviour (robbery) against Ghana at South Africa 2010.
