Hours to the highly-staked and heavily-anticipated football match between the Black Stars of Ghana and the Le Celeste of Uruguay, a number of ‘revenge’ billboards have been spotted in several parts of Accra.
Although it has become a topical debate on whether or not the encounter between the two countries will be a revenge or not, these billboards seem to be speaking the mind of a number of citizens.
Ghana met the South American side for the first time on Friday, July 2, 2010, in a quarter-finals decider at the South African World Cup.
The game, played on a chilly night, was going quite well for the Ghana side until a late minute header from Dominic Adiyiah, which was headed straight into the goal-post, was stopped by Uruguay’s Luis Suarez’s hand.
The Black Stars got a penalty for that act, and Suarez was rightfully sent off as punishment, but what was supposed to turn into Ghana’s glory took the fastest nosedive in the country’s football history; Asamoah Gyan, Ghana’s striker, missed it.
12 years on, Ghana again meets the Uruguayan team at the World Cup in a fixture that will also be played on a Friday, which is also the second day of the month in which it is being played.
While there is a call for revenge, Ghana’s head coach, Otto Addo, has said that his boys are not going into the game with such a mentality.
“I’m a guy who doesn’t think too much about the past when this incident happened. I’m a strong believer if you don’t seek revenge, you get even more blessings.
“It’s a different approach, a different team. [Uruguay] have very good strikers, lots of experience. They are very compact, very good. It will be very, very difficult, again,” he stated.
But it appears some Ghanaians disagree, as some billboards have been spotted in some locations in Accra.
In a tweet shared by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, he showed some of the locations of these billboards that have the inscriptions, “REVENGE! Let’s support the Black Stars,” boldly written on them.
It remains a big match for Ghana and the rest of Africa as well, as the country looks to make it through this stage and join Senegal and Morocco as the only teams from the continent that have qualified for the next stage of the tournament.
See Gabby's tweet below:
Coach Otto Addo says the #GhanavsUruguay game today is not about revenge. But, Ghanaians disagree. Except the desired results are the same: nothing less than a victory against Suarez and co. The streets of the capital, Accra, have 'revenge' billboards to remove all doubts. pic.twitter.com/vQbOLWjE84
One of the many billboards spotted in parts of Accra