Gunner Frimpong latest to be hit by Ghana curse

Ghana. Sheez. How unlucky can you get? Reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup without crocked Chelsea star Michael Essien and with Sulley Muntari causing havoc in the camp – and then some irksome Uruguayan uses a hand to prevent the Black Stars from claiming their rightful place as Africa’s first global semi-finalists.

Ah, how Africa wept that fateful night at Soccer City on July 2 when Luis Suarez produced football’s second Hand of God, enabling his side to progress on penalties. What might have been eh? But that’s history now. An 18-year-old called Emmanuel Yaw Frimpong represents the future – but he too has been hit by the curse of the Black Stars.

With a name which sounds curiously like a video game for x-box addicts if you say it quickly, Frimpong is the new Ghanaian on the block. On Arsenal’s north London block that is.

Arsene Wenger swooped for the lad from Accra when he was just 11. Just as he did with Cesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini and Nicolas Anelka, the shrewd Frenchman was in and talking to the parents before the locals realised what they had in their hands. He signed at the turn of the millennium and has rarely looked back.

Frimpong has been talked about for some time by Arsenal aficionados... but few outside the Gooner blogs have heard of the midfielder who started all three of Arsenal’s pre-season friendlies next to the young English phenomenon Jack Wilshere, also 18. The official Arsenal website suggests the lad is “built like a welterweight boxer” and his prowess in the tackle makes him one of those “Makelele” midfielders who can win the ball as well as working magic in possession.

Frimpong might have been promoted even more quickly but for a hamstring injury which disrupted his progress last season. He laments: "Last season was difficult, it was the hamstring injury that just wouldn’t go away. It was quite frustrating, especially as I went into this season hoping to make progress in the reserves and beyond."

But for a torn cruciate suffered up training with the reserves in Dublin this month, he’s be the one wearing the No41 shirt this season. As Wenger said before injury struck: "It’s great to have two young players from our youth system playing so well in pre-season. We are all happy. Frimpong is a bit less of a dribbler than Wilshere, but he's a fighter and a winner."

While Mario Balotelli, Inter Milan’s young Ghanaian who has just moved to Manchester City, shrugs off his heritage to play for Italy and Jerome Boateng chose to play for Germany, Frimpong has resisted the lure of England. And he did if before the Three Lions’ appalling World Cup performance cast a pall over the game in the land where football was invented.

Frimpong played for England’s Under 16 and Under 18s, but insisted in February: "I have always said that, no matter what, I will always play for Ghana because at the end of the day, from what I believe, I am a Ghanaian.

"England has done a lot for me and my family but at the end of the day I can't see myself playing for England because I am not English - I am from Ghana."

Wenger is mystified by Fabio Capello’s failure to test Frimpong’s unexpected pledge of allegiance. Never one to worry about nationality, Wenger growls: "Here you have a boy who can choose between England and Ghana. So if I was in your place, I would have no hesitation and invite him to play very quickly for England."

But Capello’s silence is deafening. Now something of a lame duck England coach after their World Cup farce, the Italian has missed the boat once more. Next time Ghana appear on the international stage, expect a rehabilitated Frimpong to feature in the Essien role. Prominently.

Sharm el Sheikh, August 2010

So while Arsenal are crushing Blackpool and Wayne Rooney and Stevie Gerrard await the latest news on various injunctions, we take a short break to have a look at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, where the Red Sea offers incredible snorkelling seconds from your room... suddenly the Premier League, England losing to Pakistan at The Oval and South Africa versus the All Blacks at Soccer City doesn't matter quite as much!

Despite my best efforts, the karoake drew at standing ovation, though the crowd was largely Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. Guess everyone knows My Way and Delilah, it's an international language!

Evening snorkelling cruise was cool, everything else was hot, hot, hot. It's 40 degrees and has rained once in 20 years.

Underwater pix have yet to be developed. Got a bit of video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AVi4dWBSgU

And finally, here it is in print: My record 150 not out for Chalfont St Peter Cricket Club

So here it is, the Bucks Advertiser today, August 5, 2010, with a deliriously blow-by-blow account of my record 150 not out for Chalfont St Peter last Sunday!

I know it's only blowing my own trumpet, but given I'd spent the previous three months covering the World Cup in South Africa, it wasn't a bad effort at 49.

And the day before I'd got a third-ball duck opening for neighbouring Chalfont St Giles in my first game of the season - snicked one to slip against Holyport!

Given the fact mighty Penn Street usual wallop us, it was a significant boost for absent captain Alexis Panayiotou and chairman Dan Webb - both having given birth in recent weeks. Well, their wives did.

As always, the Advertiser have done me proud. Spent a long time on the phone with Matt Lewis, their new sports reporter.

Some details Cally the Penn Street scorer also provided: 50 off 59 balls, 100 off 98 balls, 150 off 129. That means the second ton came off just 80 balls, not bad for an old bloke who can't see the scoreboard without shuffling the fielding positions!

The big partnerships: put on 40 with Matt Stannard (28), 88 with Adam Crossley (17), 60 with son Charlie (27) and a further 51 with Charles Gorton (24) in a total of 294-5.

But as I say in the piece, it's the youngsters who keep me going. If they weren't playing I wouldn't bother at this ripe old age. Leg spinner Tom Murphy, England's new Shane Warne aged just 14, took 4-14 off his four overs, Adam Pomarkenke took 3-13, Harry Tyler 2-26 and Jake Watson 1-23. And all of them are still at school. Incredible.

Penn Street were all out for 94, and nobody can remember a 200-run win on a Sunday at the club. So indulge me. My moment of glory after last year's National Christian Vets Cup FA Cup triumph for Goldhill Baptist Church.

There won't be many more moments like this!

Sorry, indulge me. This is what I did today... my highest cricket score at the age of 49!

FORMER Chalfont St Peter parish councillor Neal Collins produced the innings of his life at the ripe old age of 49 on Sunday, scoring 150 off 129 balls against Penn Street.

Playing for Chalfont St Peter's Sunday eleven against their bogey side, sports journalist Collins was playing his first game of the season at the club after spending three months in South Africa at the World Cup.

Chalfont ran up a total of 294-5 off their 40 overs and skittled Penn Street for 94 in just 19.4 overs - a record winning margin of exactly 200 runs.

Collins opened quietly with Matt Stannard (who dominated the 40-run opening partnership with 28), then added 88 with 13-year-old Challoners schoolboy Adam Crossley (17).

Collins added 60 with 13-year-old step-son Charlie Lane (27) and reached the 150 milestone off the final over of the innings after a fine knock from another Challoners pupil, Charles Gorton (24).

Young Kieran Werrell produced a spell of 3-64 but Penn Street were always struggling.

The visitors were in trouble from the start of their innings, with teenagers Harry Tyler (2-26) and Jake Watson (1-23) removing the early order before the brilliant leg-spin of 14-year-old Tom Murphy (4-14) and the under-used medium pace of yet another Challoners lad Adam Pomarenke (3-13) wrapped things up.

Collins, who hit 25 fours and a six, said: "I'm nearly 50, this isn't going to happen again. But Penn Street normally beat us out of sight so it was good to see the youngsters getting runs and wickets too.

"This club has a bright future."

World Cup 2010: They think it's all over. Sadly, it is now

The World Cup is over. I'm home. Back in my charming little village in Buckinghamshire, about 25 miles west of London. Great to see the missus and the kids, great to recount the South African tales, great to use the brand-new barbecue, perhaps the only built-in "braai" in historic Chalfont St Giles!

But there's a hole in my life. The World Cup is over, and like so many others, I'm struggling to remember what I did before the whole thing got underway on June 11.

For me, it started years ago of course. I tapped out a book in six weeks last November, a novel which told how the Rainbow Nation's miracle was about to begin. Then I went out for the England cricket tour to South Africa, having set up my blog site with Andy Watts, the local internet guru.

Then South Africa tourism flew me out to their Indaba 2010 conference in early May. Since then, it hasn't stopped. An epic tournament, filled with drama on and off the field.

In brief, here's the statistics from my World Cup:

Newspapers: over 140 articles articles in an estimated 29 different newspapers, from USA Today and the Wall Street Journal in the US, to the Standard and Express in England and all over South Africa with translations appearing in India and Portugal among others. As I clip out the articles to create some kind of record of my trip, I find the Natal Mercury and the Shoot World Cup pull-out (which appeared in the Johannesburg Star, the Cape Argus, the Pretoria News, Natal Mercury and even Kimberley's Diamond Fields Advertiser, produced by the excellent Matshelane Mamabolo and dominated by the super Kevin McCallum) did me proudest.

Television: Apart from the usual Sky News stuff, there were two fascinating appearances on SABC2's Weekend Live plus interviews for Norwegian, Japanese, Indian and Italian television. Never saw those last four, but if anyone did, I hope I did okay!

Radio: nearly 50 crossings with David O'Sullivan on Johannesburg's 702 and CapeTalk's Aiden in the Mother City of South Africa, plus six or seven for BBC Radio 5. I did every Saturday lunch-time on WJR in the US which can be heard in 17 states, a couple with the BBC World Service and Ireland's NewsTalk, five or six for SABC's Radio 2,000 and one for a Portuguese outfit and various snippets for Guatemala, China and Denmark.

On-line: these are the verifiable numbers: YouTube 100,551, nealcollins.co.uk 30,129, Bleacherreport 128,730. How many of those are unique, different hits I'm not sure, but it puts up a figure of over 250,000 people.

I don't know how many readers/viewers/listeners actually paid heed to my views. Whether spoken, written or networked, I stuck to my guns.

When the foreign papers began their "South Africa sucks" campaign around April time, I firmly refuted their nonsense, sticking up for a nation which only shrugged off Apartheid 16 years ago.

There will be no bloodbaths, I said when the Daily Star's front page was emailed around the world. The stadiums, roads and hotels will be ready, I said when the Sun and Daily Mail said they were still building sites. The fans will be safe, I said when papers all around the world warned of crime and poor security.

Even on Sky News, when their Emma Hurd was down in Cape Town digging for anti-South African publicity at a squatter camp, I was on air saying such things wouldn't affect the World Cup.

They didn't. None of them. The stadiums were packed, the games started on time, the whole thing was magnificent.

I have made myself extremely unpopular in certain areas for being so outspokenly pro-South Africa. One site suggested I was paid by Durban's city council for being so keen on a 2020 Olympic bid. Rubbish. It's the best Olympic venue I've ever seen, and the official bid is underway now, six months after I first mentioned it here on December 29 lats year during the cricket tour.

An African Olympics is a certainty now. The IOL have been shamed in to it by FIFA's Sepp Blatter, not my favourite man but a visionary of sorts. He knew South Africa could do it, and stuck with them in a world full of doubters.

And ultimately, I should be happy. Crime in South Africa dipped to record lows during the World Cup. Security was perfect, just 170 arrests were made, a miracle of miracles. No bloodbaths, traffic snarl-ups, earthquakes, unfinished infrastructure, lethal snakes. How many times have I written that?

I was right all along. Of course, the foreign papers will make no apologies. None of them will call me and remind me: "Neal, you were right all along, we were wrong." South Africa, rightly, basks in the glory of a tournament which they pulled off with aplomb.

And I should be the happiest man in the world. Look at those stats above. I got the message out there, sold a few copies of my book.

But now it's over. Africa's first World Cup went off with barely a hitch. And here I sit, painting a fence, watering the hanging baskets, going to a school prize-giving, a county cricket final.

But what next? When you've been consumed by a crusade like South Africa 2010, how do you follow it?

Commuting into London has lost any allure it may have once held. The idea of doing shifts on the national newspapers and sniffing out a full-time role appalls me. There's a few Test matches coming up, the Ashes in Australia this winter... the start of the new Premier League season with England's rotten, over-paid let-downs.

Another book? A sequel to A GAME APART? Hardly. At 50p a book I'm never gone to get rich on current sales. Another career? Too late for all that at 49.

What I need is a new crusade. Any ideas? Feel free to leave them below. Help me lift the gloom. Please.

Webb looks back on toughest two hours of his career... as Capello reveals England's new sponsors

Under-fire World Cup final referee Howard Webb admits Soccer City on Sunday night was “the most difficult two hours of my career.”

England’s top referee, who has been refereeing top class football for five years, handed out a record 14 cards and sent off Johnny Heitinga as Holland were accused of trying to kick the triumphant Spaniards off the park.

Webb, 38, said: “It left me physically and emotionally drained but FIFA have been very supportive - not just about the final but our performances throughout the whole tournament."

Webb was confronted by an Orange grove of furious Dutchmen after the final whistle – and was also blasted by the Spaniards for not sending off Manchester City’s Nigel de Jong for a first-half kick into the chest of Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso.

Many feel FIFA chief Sepp Blatter was less than fully supportive. He said: “We have to live with the errors of players and referees. I can only say it was a very hard task the officials had. It was not easy, really not easy. The side that played football won.”

But Keith Hackett, in charge of Premier League referees in England, backed his man. He said: " Out of all the referees at the World Cup, Howard was the ideal appointment. Had a referee with lesser experience been in charge, it could well have deteriorated into mass confrontation.

"You expect players to respond to a referee - and cautions normally serve to calm players down. But in this game, yellow cards had little effect on some players who continued to test his authority.

"It is unfair that Howard is being criticised because, overall, he had a superb game technically.”

Sorry about the doctored picture. Couldn't resist it. Twittered by SuperSports' Clinton van der Berg. And we all know what former police sergeant Webb looks like!

Neal Collins (nealcol) has almost finished promoting his World Cup novel A GAME APART in South Africa. See www.nealcollins.co.uk for more information... and the soon-to-be-written sequel!

World Cup 2010: The final analysis, Spain one, South Africa won

From the opening concert at the Orlando Stadium to the final burst of fireworks at Soccer City, the glory at this World Cup belonged not to Spain but to South Africa.

A grubby final was snatched after 114 goalless minutes by Andres Iniesta’s well-taken effort allowing Spain to erupt in celebration at last.

So often the under-achievers, Iniesta is just one of a dozen world-class La Rochas. Interesting then that the Barcelona element felt the need to parade the Catalan flag at the crucial, cup-lifting moment.

South Africa were supposed to be the divided country. Long accused of being incapable of hosting football’s greatest event, the teenagers of democracy got it together with gusto.

While Spain may have outlasted the local hopefuls, Bafana Bafana, by some distance, did any country of the 32 experience a greater nation-building month than the hosts?

Of course not. Spain will go home to their Basque/Castillian/Catalan nations with heads held high. But from where I sit, after nearly three months of travelling South Africa, this wasn’t about Spain 1, Netherland 0. It was simply South Africa won.

When I set out on this epic journey, nobody had even heard of Paul the Octopus or Luis Suarez’s hand. No. The foreign press were harping on about bloodbaths and muggings and unfinished infrastructure when I turned up in Durban for the Indaba 2010 Tourism conference on May 8.

For the next month, it was all about denying the doom-mongers. Strangely, England’s training camp in Phokeng was not “a dump” as the British tabloids described it. It was finished on time, and perfect for the job. You can’t blame the Bafokeng people for England’s appalling showing here.

Similarly, the roads and stadia were near-perfect. And the brand new King Shaka airport, apart from lacking a parking warden, was pretty good too.

Everywhere we travelled, foreign fans were ecstatic. Glad they had “taken the risk” of coming to deepest, darkest Africa. Were any wags mugged? Were any mugs wagged? Anybody bitten by deadly snakes or murdered in their hotel beds?

No.

Were the stadiums half-finished or half-empty? Not at the best supported World Cup since 1994. Did the fans come? Yes, despite the negative claptrap, over half a million travelled here. And they will return to encourage more to revisit this country, where whales, dolphins, elephants and lions can entertain as much as over-paid footballers, Diego Maradona or blind referees.

How many rugby or cricket World Cups, how many Olympics, have been this successful? How many times do you attend a major sports event to be struck not by the talent of the athletes but by the quality of the fans, the service, the sheer joy of being here?

Not many.

And now, no doubt, the tireless Danny Jordaan will receive apologies from everywhere... from The Sun to the New Zealand Herald, as the world realises that, actually, Africa does quite a good job when it comes to global events. Let’s count those retractions.

No, not one.

But there we were. After 64 matches in 10 perfect stadia, a riveting open ceremony and a technically incredible closing show. Nelson Mandela even popped in to give us a wave. We had the fireworks lighting the sky over Soweto, the Spaniards adding the World Cup to their European crown, the fans delighted to celebrate with them and their two flags.

One winner. South Africa. Where unbuntu, that feeling of being part of a family, overwhelmed the plethora of yellow cards and cynical fouls.

Pre-tournament favourites Spain won this World Cup with less goals than any side has ever managed before – they hardly thrilled us, apart from when they surprisingly lost their opening game against modest Switzerland. Holland set out to kick them off the park.

After the final I found myself arguing with former Arsenal "star" Perry Groves over the merits of Spain and the football at this World Cup. From where they sat, they weren't thrilled. Philistines. Mourning for England, they missed the whole point.

And it didn’t matter. Because all around, the lamentable, lovable vuvuzelas were blowing, the locals were dancing... and South Africa rather than Spain was united in self-congratulation.

Finally this quote from President Jacob Zuma: "When we won the rights to host the World Cup, we knew that working together we would be able to succeed. But what has happened has exceeded our expectations. That is because of the role played by our people, the South Africans. They are the stars and champions of this tournament."

Amen.