More Football and This is Nigeria · Global Voices
Oluniyi D. Ajao

Football fever is hot in the air and Nigerian bloggers share their thought.
Aba Boy is  Identifying with the French
It was so easy (as a black person and an immigrant) to identify with the French team that beat Spain yesterday. The team that played yesterday was made of black players like Thuram, Gallas, Abidal, Makelele, Vieira, Malouda, Govou, Henry, Wiltord and Zidane who by the way is Algerian.
African Shirts identifies with the Ghanaian footbal team: We're still Ghanaian (and partly Brazilian)
The Black Stars acquitted themselves well, but they suffered from the perennial African disease of non-scoring-itis. Brazil, on the other hand were clinical, and 3-0 was a flattering score. Fat Ronaldo scored after being written off by the media, and he has now scored the most World Cup goals ever. Ghana missed Michael Essien desperately, because he would have been the one to check Brazil's marauding midfielders. He must have been bitterly disappointed.
Black Looks gives an overview of the Ghana – Brazil encounter: Ghana keeps pride for 81 minutes!
Ghana had nothing to loose except possibly their pride – they always looked like maybe they could take the game with great play from Appiah, Amoah, Pantsil and Mensah but poor finishing and of course once they had settled down and remembered the D word. Essien’s absense had to be crucial – what with the ref dishing out yellow cards to Ghana like ballons at a kids party but I always felt a goal was possible and even a win. Whatever – I think we can all live with loosing to a not so great Brazil but Gyan’s dive was blatant and shameful – and Thinkers “man” – well he’s still singing – scores a goal and then stands around for 89 minutes waiting for someone to pass him the ball – may be if he did a bit more work……..! but then he doesnt have to I guess.
Just Thinking Out Loud! is full of praises for the Ghanaian team: Life is not fair…for real!
I just got back to my desk after watching that game (though I must say that I saw only the second half) and I just can't imagine any other loss that could be more painful than that. This was a team that everyone thought Brazil would just ride over. But as the game started, Ghana proved that was not going to happen. During the 1st half, I was on IM throughout with a friend that was watching it and he kept me abreast of how the game was going. He kept on telling me how Ghana was playing a great great game! By the time I got to my friend's place to watch the 2nd half, I saw what he was saying. He couldn't have been more on point than that. I mean Ghana plaaaaayed! They played much better than Brazil played. And that was without Michael Essien. They played a great game for sure.
Naijablog shares Jide Adeniyi-Jones’ thoughts on Nigeria
‘This is Nigeria’
It is hard to say precisely when Nigeria lost its way, but soon after the demise of the first republic we lost our self-confidence. In defense, we took refuge behind words like Giant, Great and Excellence as if their forceful proclamation would endow us with the qualities that they define. The very need for these superlatives in the face of our obvious challenges is itself symptomatic of our neurosis. But it is a little too easy to seek the root of our current predicament in military intervention. After all the military were hardly the bastion of the brightest and the best of our pre-independence population. So in the battle for the soul of the nation, they are unlikely to have won such a resounding victory; even with all the instruments of coercion at their disposal. No, I think we have to look a little farther back.