68
The Ghanaian News April 2013
Around the Ghana Sports Scene with Jonathan Annobil Lions take BYU DE Ziggy Ansah No. 5 overall in NFL Ghana sprinter Flings rules draft as part of Africa ‘crazy journey’ from Ghana Ziggy Ansah was born and raised in Ghana, playing soccer and shooting hoops without ever seeing a snap of football. When he moved to the United States in 2008, some missionaries suggested he attend Brigham Young and try out for the basketball team. He fell short there, but was willing to listen again when friends persuaded him to play football for the first time in 2010. It has paid off and then some: On Thursday night, the Detroit Lions made him the No. 5 overall draft pick. “It’s been a humbling experience,” Ansah said with a thick accent on a conference call with Detroit-area reporters. “ A c r a z y j o u r n e y. ” What if someone told him a few years ago he would end up being drafted fifth overall in 2013? “I would be like, ‘I don’t know what you’re thinking,’” Ansah said. If Ansah doesn’t play up to his potential, some people may be saying the same thing about the gamble the Lions took with an inexperienced player. Detroit desperately needed an offensive tackle, but three were drafted within the first four picks. The franchise’s decisionmakers knew they also had a glaring void at defensive end. Instead of trading down to acquire additional picks, the Lions stuck with their slot and took a player they evaluated up close for a week at the Senior Bowl. “He’s the best player available,” Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said. “And, he fills a need. This was an opportunity where the grade matched up with the need and it worked out great for us.” Detroit didn’t re-sign defensive end Cliff Avril, who joined Seattle in free agency, and cut its other
starting defensive end, Kyle Vanden Bosch, from last year’s 4-12 team. The Lions’ poor season put them in a position to coach a team at the Senior Bowl and they took advantage, getting to know an intriguing player in a way no other team in the league could’ve this offseason. It eased any concern Mayhew had about a player very new to the game. “If we didn’t have the opportunity to coach him at the Senior Bowl, that would have been a bigger issue,” Mayhew said. “But we had the opportunity to work with him and teach him and we saw the way that he could learn, how quickly he picks things up and we saw the impact that he had in the game so we felt very comfortable with him.” Ansah, whose first name is Ezekiel, didn’t know how to put on shoulder pads just three years ago. “He had no idea,” BYU center Braden Hansen recalled last season. Slowly, he turned himself into a player widely expected to be among the first chosen Thursday night — and he was soon after Detroit was on the clock. N o w, t h e 6 - f o o t - 5 , 271-pound Ansah has got a great shot to start on an NFL team. “We didn’t draft him to
be a project,” Detroit coach Jim Schwartz said. Ansah should be able to benefit from playing alongside one of the league’s best tandem of defensive tackles — Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley — that will put him in one-onesituations when he’s trying to sack quarterbacks. “I just can’t wait to be a part of that line,” Ansah said. Ansah’s athletic ability could create mismatches that Detroit’s shaky defense needs next season. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds at the NFL Combine and had a 34.5-inch vertical leap. In track at BYU, he ran the 200-meter dash in less than 22 seconds and had a sub11-second 100-meter dash. “Phenomenal, phenomenal athlete,” Mayhew said. Impressive person, too. The actuarial science major, the youngest of five children, speaks two Ghanaian dialects and hopes his unique path inspires an entire continent . “One thing I want to do is just to be an ambassador with the NFL and bring the game back to Ghana because I know that there are little kids back home that are going to be pretty good at this game,” Ansah said. “I can try to introduce the game to the people in Africa.”
Ghanaian sprinter Flings Owusu-Agyapong is the fastest woman in Africa today, according to the IAAF records for the 100m in 2013.
signs good form during the Indoor season, after running the 60 meters in 7.27 seconds in Toronto.
The USA-based athlete clocked 11.39 seconds in the April 13th Hurricane Alumni Invitational Outdoor Track & Field competition in Florida, to set a new personal best.
Agyapong’s time is the best in Africa to date, according to the available records on the IAAF website. Liberia’s Phobay Kutu-Akoi is ranked second with a time of 11.43 and Stephanie Kalu of Nigeria 11.55 secs.
The 2012 Africa 100m finalist had shown
The Ghanaian athlete is just 3/100ths away from the
It took the Nigerians eight minutes to open the scoring through Prince Omego. Chidiebere Nwakali took a corner kick that forced a save from the Ivorian goal minder Aboubakar Diabagate
who punched a goalbound header back into play and Omega reacted quickest to poke home the first goal of the match Nigeria could have doubled their lead some minutes later when some intricate play found Musa Yahaya all by himself in the box but with everyone looking for the off-side whistle which did not come, Yahaya dragged his short wide of the post. The Ivorians’ response was to try and get some service to their front tall striker Bile Bedia. Twenty-six minutes had gone when Baby Elephants won a free-kick in the Nigeria
half. Bedia used his height advantage to jump furthest and flick a header into the top corner of Adeyinka Adewale’s net for the equalizer. Just after that Success Isaac was thwarted by Diabagate after beat his marker but the goalkeeper closed the angel forcing the competition top-goal scorer to blaze his effort. The Ivorians then took the midfield contest to their opponents with Bekanty Angban , Aboubacar Keita and Digbo Maiga who was playing just behind Bedia stretching and tussling with Kelechi Iheanacho, Bernard Bulbwa, Yahaya. It was a similar story in
Her 2013 season so far has been sweet revenge for not qualifying for the London Olympics, after the fiasco that undermined the chances of the youthful crop of Ghanaian athletes at last year’s African Championships in Porto Novo, Benin. Source: Erasmus Kwaw
Bayern saunter into Wembley final Brilliant Bayern Munich completed a stunning UEFA Champions League semi-final mauling of Barcelona, with a 3-0 win in Spain and 7-0 on aggregate, to set up a mouthwatering Wembley final against Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The Argentina forward has been struggling with a hamstring problem in recent weeks and, although he scored after appearing as a second-half substitute in Saturday’s La Liga draw with Athletic Bilbao, coach Tito Vilanova opted only to name him Leading 4-0 from the first on the bench this evening. leg, Bayern were similarly clinical at the Nou Camp Even with Messi in tonight with second- their side, Barça barely half goals from Arjen troubled Bayern during Robben, Gerard Pique - the first leg, and it was who put through his own the German champions net - and Thomas Muller w h o d o m i n a t e d t h e sealing a one-sided win early exchanges tonight over a sorry Barça side as well. Robben and for whom Lionel Messi Philipp Lahm both looked was an unused substitute. poised to give Bayern what would almost The victory sees Bayern certainly have been a through to their third final tie-ending away goal in in four years and they will the opening 20 minutes hope to improve on their b u t P i q u e p r o d u c e d runner-up finishes against brilliant last-ditch tackles Inter Milan in 2010 and to deny both players. Chelsea last year when they face Real Madrid’s Barça’s first serious conquerors Dortmund - in threat on goal came in the competition’s first all- the 24th minute when German final - on 25 May. Pedro Rodriguez saw his 30-yard drive tipped M e s s i m i s s i n g over by Manuel Neuer Barça were up against as it arrowed towards the it with only three teams top corner. Two minutes ever having overturned a l a t e r X a v i v o l l e y e d four-goal first-leg deficit a decent opening over in Europe, and their from seven yards out chances of joining that list while Adriano drew a looked even slimmer after relatively comfortable Messi was judged not fit save from Neuer in the enough to start the game. 40th minute, but those
Cote d’ Ivoire beat Nigeria to lift first CAF U-17 title The Baby Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire won their first African U-17 title after a 5-4 penalty shoot victory over The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria in the final of CAF U-17 Morocco Telecom Championship played in Marrakech on Saturday. The West African derby had ended 1-1 with both goals scored in the first half of a pulsating encounter.
2013 World Championship qualifying time, needing to run 11.36 secs to secure her ticket to the Championship in Moscow, Russia thisAugust.
the second and Adewale was I the wars after being knocked down a couple of times from corner kicks as the taller Ivorians attacked high balls. The teams engaged in a fierce battle and both defenses stood solid in an evenly contest match. The Baby Elephants came close to a second goal when captain Yannick Kessie played a through ball to Maiga only for Musa Muhammed to come with a crucial challenge. Nigeria went down to ten men in the 73rd minute when defender Akinjide Idowu ‘s challenge on Aboubacar Keita with a
raised arm got him sent off but the Golden Eaglets forced make changes kept on the pressure as a see-saw battle ensued. The contest could not provide a winner and it was left to a penalty shootout to settle the matter and the Ivorians scored all their five penalties through Kessie, Diallo Ismael, Angban, Keita and Dogbole Niangbo who scored the winning penalty after Chidiebere Nwakali has missed for Nigeria. Success, Ifeanyi Mathew, Yahaya and Musa Muhammed converted spot kicks for Nigeria. cafonline
were rare moments of concern for Bayern in the opening period. Hope extinguished Barça remained unchanged at the start of the second half with Messi continuing on the bench, but any hopes the world’s best player might later inspire an unlikely fightback disappeared three minutes after the restart as Bayern took the lead. Robben picked up a long cross-field pass from David Alaba near the right touchline before racing into the area where he cut inside Adriano onto his favoured left foot and curled an unstoppable shot past Victor Valdes inside the far post. That away goal left Barça needing to score six times to go through to a fourth final in eight years, and it proved well beyond them. With the tie gone, Vilanova opted to keep Messi under wraps and his first two changes saw him send on Alexis Sanchez and Thiago for Spain duo Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Despite those changes Bayern continued to look comfortable and they doubled their lead 18 minutes from time. Franck Ribery got in behind Dani Alves down the left and his cross was sliced into his own net by Pique with Mario Mandzukic lurking behind. Ribery was also involved four minutes later as Bayern heaped more misery on Barça with a third goal. The home side had actually come close to making it 2-1 moments earlier when Villa’s glancing header hit the outside of the post, but it was game, set and match for the Germans in the 76th minute when Ribery burst past Alex Song before dinking a cross to the far post where Muller climbed highest to head high home. Shell-shocked Barça tried to find a consolation goal late on but Jupp Heynckes’ side held firm to record a 22nd win in their last 23 competitive games and seal their spot in the final. fifa.com