Black Stars<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWell, I must say you really made humanity happy by the manner you displayed your skill, using your feet. But good as you were, you disappointed me,\u201d said Rawlings with rising intonation capturing the attention of millionaire Black Stars whose jaws ascended to meet the sharp gaze of the retired President.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to endeavour to perform self-examination and self criticism every time so you can perform better in subsequent games.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the message sunk in, a military chopper roared past the stadium providing a temporary relief to his subjects as the retired Flight Lieutenant\u2019s interest was drawn away by the noise above.<\/p>\n
But he had his subjects at his mercy and soon returned for a bite.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Asamoah Gyan?\u201d Rawlings asked as a chorus of \u201cthere!\u201d drowned the Sunderland man\u2019s answer of \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sunderland record signing then waited for the hammer to fall. And it indeed fell.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou played well, the team played well but you made fundamental mistakes. Penalty taking is pure physics. It is about speed. It is about the velocity of the ball. I know no one likes to be corrected, but we all make mistakes,\u201d Rawlings bellowed, but quickly added that it is good to be corrected, perhaps with knowledge he was addressing big egos.<\/p>\n
All the while dead silence had engulfed the group with journalists keen for Rawlings to prove right the opinions they held in the aftermath of Ghana\u2019s 4-2 penalty shoot-out defeat to Uruguay on July 2, last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou made it even worse by standing close to the ball. Do you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Black Stars had answered in the affirmative perhaps hoping it would remove the sting from the raging retired President.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stadium was dead silent. Waiting. The goalkeeper will always gamble, but you have to reduce his chances by giving the ball the right velocity. As I said it is pure physics. Do you understand?<\/p>\n
Another round of \u201cYes!\u201d followed amid His Excellency\u2019s appreciation \u2014 clearly enjoying his chance to roast the millionaires, but without due consideration of two home-based goalkeepers Sammy Adjei (Hearts of Oak, Ghana) Ernest Sowah (Berekum Chelsea, Ghana) and striker Nathaniel Asamoah (Asante Kotoko, Ghana) who probably shared Rawlings\u2019 admonition of Europe-based millionaires.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd don\u2019t get angry,\u201d said Rawlings. \u201cIf I make a mistake I expect people to correct me. I do the same in my home and even when I was President I was always open to criticism, correction. By standing near the ball, the goalkeeper\u2019s chances were at 80 per cent when it has to be 30 per cent. These are some of the fundamental mistakes we should not be making,\u201d said Rawlings, as he surveyed the cringing faces of the players and fleeting look at Serbia coach Goran Stevanovic standing to his far left.<\/p>\n
He knew he had bitten a huge chunk of the Black Stars\u2019 egos and eased the pain with joke that: \u201cThe big man in Africa doesn\u2019t lie.\u201d And true, you could feel a sense of phew!<\/p>\n
Rawlings then drifted into more critical issues extolling the Black Stars and the black race for its role in reducing racism across the globe.<\/p>\n
Few people gave a chance to a young Ghana side missing its injured Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, but began with a 1-0 defeat of Serbia, drew 1-1 with Australia, and lost 1-0 to Germany.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s 4-1 crushing of Australia meant Ghana went through to the second round where they eliminated USA 2-1, with would-be villain Gyan scoring a brilliant goal in extra-time after Kevin Prince Boateng\u2019s early strike had been cancelled by Landon Donovan from the spot.<\/p>\n
Ghana would, however, be eliminated by Uruguay in controversial fashion when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez blocked Dominic Adiyiah\u2019s header with his hands on the stroke of fulltime of extra-time.<\/p>\n
Gyan then shaved the crossbar from the penalty despite sending goalkeeper Fernando Muslera the wrong way.<\/p>\n
The Black Stars were \u201cto pay the penalty\u201d as most headlines read across the world for Muslera returned to save efforts from Stephen Appiah and Adiyiah, before Sebastian Abreu extinguished hopes of Africans with the decisive spot-kick to send Uruguay through to the semi finals.<\/p>\n
Racial prejudice<\/p>\n
But Rawlings saw the silver lining in the Black Stars\u2019 display as he asked stars he had just hit at if they knew how much they had contributed to reduction of racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that performance other races have respected the blacks. Through your feet racial prejudice is crumbling. Those noises you hear in stadiums around Spain have reduced thanks to your exploits that have brought advantages to humanity,\u201d Rawlings thundered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica started to take pride in her black people when they started excelling in sports; the likes of Mohammed Ali and many others,\u201d said Rawlings, who was born in Accra on June 22, 1947 to Victoria Agbotui from Dzelukope near Keta and a Scottish chemist, James Ramsey John, then working in the then Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternationalisation is taking place. Who ever knew a black person would be elected US President or a woman vying for presidency? It is because of the Amendments 11-27,\u201d Rawlings said as he indulged the footballers in academics.<\/p>\n
It did not matter whether they understood anyway. His Excellency had tackled his man-Asamoah Gyan.<\/p>\n
Real hard.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/64f2073b61-300x190.jpg-150x150.jpg\")
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\nWhen A Presidential Tackle At Kasarani Flattened Asamoah Gyan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to Ghanasoccernet.com, Ghana’s most authoritative football news website. Ghana star striker Asamoah Gyan may be accustomed to hard tackles from no-nonsense defenders, but he may not have anticipated a high-boot presidential tackle from former Head of State Flt-Lt (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings on the lawns of Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 March. The two-time Ghana President told the Sunderland forward he had been waiting for long to get it off his chest the penalty miss against Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup quarter-final clash at Soccer City in South Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
When A Presidential Tackle At Kasarani Flattened Asamoah Gyan - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/28\/when-a-presidential-tackle-at-kasarani-flattened-asamoah-gyan\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"When A Presidential Tackle At Kasarani Flattened Asamoah Gyan - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Welcome to Ghanasoccernet.com, Ghana's most authoritative football news website. Ghana star striker Asamoah Gyan may be accustomed to hard tackles from no-nonsense defenders, but he may not have anticipated a high-boot presidential tackle from former Head of State Flt-Lt (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings on the lawns of Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 March. 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Ghana star striker Asamoah Gyan may be accustomed to hard tackles from no-nonsense defenders, but he may not have anticipated a high-boot presidential tackle from former Head of State Flt-Lt (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings on the lawns of Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 March. 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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ghanasoccernet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/JJ-61.jpg\" "\\"Ex-president")
<\/a>Ghana star striker Asamoah Gyan may be accustomed to hard tackles from no-nonsense defenders, but he may not have anticipated a high-boot presidential tackle from former Head of State Flt-Lt (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings on the lawns of Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 March.<\/strong><\/p>\n