The-Shot.Net Writers Club - SOUTH AFRICA'S OLYMPIC DREAM OVER

SOUTH AFRICA'S OLYMPIC DREAM OVER

South Africa's dream of qualifying for the second successive Olympic games was turned into a nightmare by the gutsy Ghanaians.

Not that the Amagluglug had any realistic chance after starting brilliantly by beating Algeria and then falter badly against then bottom of the group, Zambia. The game was billed as "putting the record straight" after South Africans cried foul when they lost the first match in Accra 2-1. Amagluglug lost by the same margin in a match hastily arranged in Pretoria's Caledonian Stadium after the Mamelodi's HM Pitjie Stadium outside Pretoria was deemed unfit following torrential rains. There was no score at half-time.

On a wet and slippery pitch, both teams finished with 10 men after South Africa's Edward Malinga and Ghana's Addo Ishmael both saw the red card in the 31st minute. They had scuffled for the ball and, surprisingly, the Angolan referee gave them their marching orders in what appeared to be an innocuous eye for an eye challenge which a booking would have sufficed.

After the first half stalemated, the visitors pulled ahead in the 46th minute through Denmark-based Pinpong Razak. The hosts, now under immense pressure, equalised seven minutes later through the man of the match, Benedict Vilakazi. South Africa's push for a second goal left them badly exposed at the back, and Ghana duly won through Razak, who outran three Amagluglug defenders to score in the 71st minute.

It was Ghana's second ever win over their South African cousins in any competition at any level. After the match, Ghana's Portuguese coach Mariano Barreto said that the win "now allows us to dream the Olympic dream." His South African counterpart, Kenneth "Conti" Khubeka said that his side "did well, but things like this happen in football". Their last fixture against Algeria is of no account, as neither side is in the running anymore.

The most interesting fixture of the group is between the top two - Zambia away to Ghana. To many in Zambia, this success signals a revival of Zambian football. It was exactly 16 years ago at the Seoul Olympics Games when the landlocked country in southern Africa surprised the highly fancied Italians with 4-0 drubbing, with then still unknown raw-boned Kalusha Bwalya scoring a hat-trick.