All of us are there now - we the Africans, along with the South Americans, like the Europeans, the North Americans and Asians.
The Africans have proven that we are all at the same level of football, and Ghana has proven before the whole world that our standard of football in Africa is now at the peak.
Ghana should have been in the semi finals stage, if only Gyan concentrated! Unfortunately, he was so over excited, and did not take his time to shoot properly.
Following Ghana's exit from the tournament, on Friday, football experts now believe that African teams have made progress dealing with the financial and tactical issues that have always plagued them during major tournaments, but need to work on their mental stamina to triumph.
Like Brazil, England, Italy and Argentina, all of them have also exited during the quarters and group stages respectively.
In fact, these teams were termed as favorites to win the World Cup, but like Ghana they failed to make it, and were eliminated before they got to the semi finals.
Meanwhile, what has been established by Ghana for African teams to emulate is that coaches should on no account be sacked two to three months before the competition. Ghana, for example, has been with its coach, Milovan Rajevac, for over two years, before World Cup 2010.
He took over from a local coach and Under-20 World Cup winning Ghanaian coach, Sellas Tetteh.
Tetteh has built up his reputation strongly over the last four years, serving as assistant coach for Ghana at the 2006 World Cup and the 2008 Nations Cup.
He then took charge of the Black Stars after the 2008 tournament, helping the team reach the second stage of the qualifiers, with four victories out of five games, before the Serbian Milovan Rajevac took over.
Last year in Kigali, he masterminded a thrilling Ghana victory at the African Youth Championships and followed up by guiding the Black Satellites to become the first African winners of the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Cairo, Egypt.
The best advice for African nations, therefore, is to keep the coaches who have qualified them to the finals, simply because, in our view, you cannot sack the coach that qualified you to such finals.
That was why Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and even South Africa did not do well. However, through Ghana, we have proved that, in football, we are now at par with other continents.
"Anyone can support a team that is winning - it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage.
Bart Starr
