Every professional competitive sports team has some rivalry going on with another team, one way or another. Being a dual citizen leaves me conflicted when the Ghana national team and the United States national team play each other. These two senior national teams have played a total of 5 games, which is honestly not as many as anyone would have thought. I am sure there have been plenty of encounters on the other lower national teams, but I personally only keep track of the senior national teams.
The very first encounter they had was on June 17th, 1983 during the presidents’ cup which I didn’t witness and cannot talk much about since I hadn’t been born yet. Now, with the subsequent encounters, I certainly have been around for and watched every second of it. On June 22nd, 2006 during Ghana’s first-ever appearance in the FIFA World Cup, the two teams played each other once in the group stages, in which Ghana came out with a hard-fought victory by winning by 2-1. The Next encounter happened on June 26th, 2010 in which the two teams faced off in the knock out stages of the FIFA World Cup 2010 tournament( round of 16). Ghana got the upper hand again with a 2-1 convincing win. This win sent the United States home. The second to the last encounter was on June 16th, 2014 (FIFA World Cup 2014) in the group stages. The United States won which left a bitter taste for a lot of Ghanaians. Finally, an international friendly on July 1st, 2017 saw the United States winning again by a close 2-1.
After tallying this up, the United States has a 3-2 lead. This shows how close and competitive the games are when these two national teams face off. This is a personal rivalry to me as I support both teams, but before a match starts every time, I end up choosing a side to be on and support with full force. To be in this position is very difficult at times, but for the love of the game one just has to enjoy the quality of the competitiveness between the two once there is a whistle blown to kick-off.
Alexander Allen Addo-Atiemo 