BOB, this is Ozil when he gets nervous: hehehe C'moon, Spain, show me some real fire. Enough with the endless passing. We know you are technically gifted.

I think Paul is on to something. Maybe he is pulling a trick on us this time. We shall see.

Originally posted by NGONGE: This mad man expects an African team to come along and easily win it just because the tournament is held on African soil? Hehehehe. Nin waalan. I don't know which is more "interesting", NGONGE's low expectation of Africans or Mr. Sengoba's calaacal and frustration with Africans not "seizing the moment" when it matters the most (Gyan's kick in the dying seconds of the game. A kick that would set a new record for Africa had he scored). I think Mr. Sengoba (AT&T) would have been perfectly happy had Ghana taken its magic to the "next level" (semis). It would have been a welcomed progress. "Many times in our history, when opportunities have sprung up to move us to the next level of achievement , it was our revered heroes, the ones on whom we put our hopes, who are full of promise; that turn out to be the authors of the saddest stories at a time when we need them most." (Read: semi-final spot). As Aristotle put it “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” By extension, failure and mediocrity are bad habits we practice repeatedly and accept to live with. (Read: Senegal(2002), and now Ghana. Same results and lack of progress to the next level. Same crowd chanting "Africa did well" again )

Great game.

lool@NNC. Ruubiiin qalgalooc is something.

Forlan strikes again. 1:1 game.

Originally posted by STOIC: Somaliland is legit now! hehehe. Just classic.

I thought this was an interesting analysis. Ghana’s missed penalty and Africa’s date with failure By Nicholas Sengoba It is a game I was watching as an African would do after seeing the catastrophe that had become of all the other five African sides; South Africa, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Nigeria at the first every FIFA World Cup final on African soil. All but Ghana had miserably fallen out in the group stages after putting in performances that were lacklustre, with a few flashes in the pan that were not enough to put a shine on the overall picture. Meaning, I was hoping for the best but seriously expecting the worst at the same time; the same way one feels when they encounter an accident waiting to happen. Ghana, Africa’s last team standing, played like men possessed and put in a great quarter final display that made Uruguay look ordinary and beatable. They were deservingly rewarded (or so we thought) with a penalty in the last minute of extra time after a desperate hand ball right on the goal line by Uruguay’s Luis Suarez. We held our breath…and Asamoah Gyan struck the resultant penalty against the wood work and with that went the spirit. The body language of the Ghanaians from that moment on was of men who had no more fight left in their stomachs. Ghana went on to lose in the subsequent penalty shoot out. And so the ‘African World Cup’ was left in the hands of three European nations and one from South America. In that brief drama filled moment I saw a great comment on Africa. Many times in our history, when opportunities have sprung up to move us to the next level of achievement, it was our revered heroes, the ones on whom we put our hopes, who are full of promise; that that turn out to be the authors of the saddest stories at a time when we need them most. The luckless Asamoah Gyan had been a star on the rise, a messiah with vision meant to lead Africa to at least their first ever semi final and maybe final at a FIFA World cup final. Then the penalty came up to this man who had already scored two in the tournament. In what looked like a nightmare he missed and so ended the African dream in the 2010 World Cup on African soil. He firmly follows in the foot steps of all those great men the Kwame Nkurumahs, Kenyattas, Kaundas and Obotes; the beholders of our dreams at independence. The chance fell at their feet to show to the world that Africans or indeed Black people were capable of governing themselves. By the 1980s after 30 years of self rule, the continent was instead a laughing stock bedevilled by corruption, tribalism, debt, hunger, disease, wars, coups, genocide and all manner of disaster. Then prospect for a fresh start struck again with the so called wind of change in the 1990s. A new breed of leaders, the Musevenis of Uganda, Kagames of Rwanda, Isias Afwerkis of Eritirea etc where seen as the replicas of the biblical Moses who would mould a more democratic Africa and deliver it to the 21st century. And see where they have brought us. We are still going hungry amidst plenty of fertile soils. We live in debt, our creditors being our former colonial masters. People all over the continent are killing each other on account of ethnicity. We still can’t choose our leaders and build good roads. This opportunity is all but lost and Africa needs a fresh start, another opportunity, another game, another penalty. That one we might have and still loose going by our history. As Aristotle put it “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” By extension, failure and mediocrity are bad habits we practice repeatedly and accept to live with. Africa has become accustomed to failing without. That is why we find ourselves missing opportunity after opportunity and learning. We put in the bare minimum knowing there will be another time. So we now wait for the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil. Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues nicholassengoba@yahoo.com http://www.monitor.co.ug

Cumar "buudh".

^^MMA, Oo maxaa u soo gelin wayday awoowe? Ma u ceeb qarineysaa. Make sure you don't shake his hand when you and Nuune go to Berlin for the 4th place celebration.

WARNING: Don't say I didn't warn you. VIDEO

Gotchya. strategic indeed. I prefer they are eliminated early. Holland is the team. Hey Bob, how is the Afrikaaner support for the Dutch team in South Africa?

Lool@at all those swiching to Germany because "they are winning" lool. Show little conviction boys. MMA and Nuune, Ghana stopped Germany except that Ozil freak shot. I can't imagine Germany scoring 4:0 against Holland or Spain. Let us come down to earth and not get too excited. Both these teams will exploit Germany's back four.

^^ Gimme a break. The Argentine defense completely fell apart. Any decent defense would not unravel that quickly. Maradona's attack-minded formula backfired.

Sad performance from the Argentines. Second goal really destroyed them. Oh well. Hpefully Spain will humiliate the hated Germans. If not, Holland shall take care of them.

^^ love the parodies on youtube.

"The opponents had the psychological advantage in the shoot-out. Everything happened so fast." -- Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac Luis Suarez is now openly bragging about stopping that shot deliberately with his hand and denying Ghana a spot in the semis. 'It was worth it to be sent off in this way. It was complicated and tough. We suffered to the end but the hand of God, it's mine now," -- Luis Suarez

^^ It is all about being emotionally prepared and skillfully trained. You could see Uruguay's side were more confident and focused. Gyan's miss set the mood up for both teams. It was huge. Anytime you have a dramatic last second disappointment for a team, expect the momentum for the other team to have a psychological affect. It is the nature of the game. Ghana missed 3 penalty shots. That is not luck. In the end results are what matters and Ghana as a team didn't bring new results home. Africa is still stuck at "last eight" spot first explored by Cameroon and Roger Milla twenty years ago. Hopefully this team will mature mentally and do great things in the years to come.

Africans are not ready for a football played at such high emotions. I switched the game off after Gyan missed that easy penalty because I always thought Ghana would never go through via penalties. With Gyan's miss, the momentum has already shifted in Uruguay's favor. Slight Confidence and a little "we can do it" is what most players need to take penalty shots. Good play from Uruguay because that header would have went in anyways. The guy was red carded but the hand ball saved his team from a loss in the last dying seconds of the game. Life goes on. Wait for another 4 years.

What a waste. Africans loosing mental strength again. ****** indeed.

Originally posted by NinaNC: Uruguay all the way. Is that a wish or a prediction?

Oodayne, NGONGE and other Mujahids on SOL, waa maalinteeniiye ciid wanaagsan ciida awooweyaal. Siilaanyo was the man I wanted to win. I have stated that many times lest you all forgot. "Victory for all of us" yaa mujahidiin. Forget politics and the usual distractors. That is a debate for another day. Siilaanyo’s win is enormous. The man is a veteran who has been blatantly cheated before. His time has come and he deserves to lead Somaliland. Annagu GOB baannu nahayoo, guusha Togdheer waan u dabbaal degeynnaa. Back to World Cup.

^^My condolences Ghelle and ATT. Arjen Robben is just an amazing little guy. He looks like as if his whole middle body is run over by a truck. Wuu qaloocan yahay isaga dhan. He terrorized the Brazilian defense today and that got the Brazilians become so emotional in the end. Nobody wanted to foul him. What a game. I was so delighted to see Brazil sent home.

My heartfelt congrats to Siilaanyo, the new leader of Somaliland state. Wax badan ayaa la yidhi, "waar bal nin reerka ah noo keena marka hore, aanu la xaajoonee", let us see how Siilaanyo handles his responsibilities. I expect Mr. Siilaanyo to tread the political waters carefully when it comes to the issue of secession. His win is far from the catalyst some are depicting it as, for a new secessionist movement. It is my prediction that Siilaanyo’s admin will strategically employ the same “false piety” talking points as the previous admin (waanu go’nay, dowlad baanu nahay, etc) just to quell the cries of the opposition parties. At worst (for the secessionists), the long-awaited election of a man from Togdheer, may perhaps usher in a new sense of realism among the region’s elites that the current “theoretical pursuit” for secession is not only politically unattainable but that the project as a whole has become somewhat perverse and contrary to their rigid sense of pragmatism. Again, congrats to new President-Elect of Somaliland.

Sad indeed. I thought these comments from Time Magazine posters were interesting ------------------------------------ Daniel I ahve been of the opinion that education was nothing more than a money making scam ever since junior high school. There are many people with education, certificates and degrees right now that are unable to find work. Mearly having the piece of paper does not ensure that you will be making any more than the person that does not or that you will be able to find a job in that field. When money is involved even educators tend to look out ofr their own self interests. Always remember these schools do not care how much debt they put you in. They only care that they are getting theirs now just like the companies of the 90's and the real estate managers of the 2000's. They will squeeze every last penny they can out of you and throw you away when ther is no money left in you. Yesterday, 19:20:53 – Flag – Reply ProfBob There are a number, a large number, of phony schools out there. In California, for example, anyone can open University if they just put down a $10,000 bond. Without bond they can then have this genius apply for federal loans, they can give PhD degrees that may qualify for state licensing in psychology and other counseling areas. Of course the people with legitimate degrees have been able to develop examinations that weed out many of these incompetents before that and hang out their shingle. Even accreditation by the major agencies does not guarantee a high level of education. You may have seen the recent US Department of Education study showing that one in seven Americans are illiterate and only about 15% can read and understand at the lower division level of college. But 27% of our population has already graduated from college. What does that say about many of our college degrees. B.S. And graduate degrees have been cheapened by many of these for-profit higher education institutions. There are some very good ones, but they seem to be in the minority. Many make the coursework very easy so that students will pass. The problem is that their knowledge is limited from such courses. Not every school can be a Harvard or UCLA but we do need some minimum to what is acceptable for an accredited college degree. Yesterday, 02:58:33 – Flag – Reply Sandra Hines I too, attended a for profit school in Colorado. One female student, an African- American, seldom came to class and never turned in her homework. The teachers told her they would fail her. The student complained to the administration. The teachers were informed that they had to pass this student, or the school would be in trouble with the Federal government. Several of the teachers quit over this mess. Yesterday, 02:53:51 – Flag – Reply Liked byGuest Daddy Bud I was and still am a victim of a small trade school in AR "loaning me funds for a class that they knew( I found out later) would never give me a career or even a job offer. At the time and ever since I have told them that I would pay the original funds back but they have constantly refused that offer and have managed to extract about 1800 of the original 2500 from me thru tax seasures and stealing stimulus checks. I now file a zero tax return and they still say I owe them but I will never pay them more than the opriginal 2500. I'm now currently unemployed and wish I could go back to school but at 59 and not getting any offers for employment I see little hope of that happening. The congress should give amnestee to those of us that were tricked into taking out loans that lead to nothing. 2 days ago, 20:46:05 – Flag – Reply deborah If the government only allowed loans to students in certified programs, seems like that would fix the problem. And of course it wouldn't hurt if these students would research the program they are interested in attending. I'll bet if they were paying out of pocket, they would know everything about the school, its programs, sucess of hire rate, faculty etc. before they spent a dime. 2 days ago, 17:16:37 – Flag – Reply lifeforsarah I taught at a technical college a few years ago and it was a joke. I was not allowed to fail any students and if a student complained about the grade they earned I was told to raise the grade no matter what. Most of the students were not prepared for the computer courses I was supposed to teach and only a few of them actually did enough work to truly pass the classes. I quit after a year. Many state run community colleges offer great technical programs that can be completed in one or two years. These are also usually a lot cheaper than for profit schools. 2 days ago, 14:47:50 – Flag – Reply UNIX Engineer Karl... I very much agree with your observations. I've tried to help many students in Des Moines who were being prepared for jobs as a "PC Tech" with trade books you could buy at a bookstore. It seems that many of these schools are simply preying on students who are desperate for employable skills and we're all paying the bill through loans that can't be repaid... Not to mention the life of the student is effectively ruined in the process (endless debt issues, etc). Time to reign in these unaccredited, for-profit schools! 2 days ago, 14:06:24 – Flag – Reply Joshua Steele That useless degree will still get you hired by companies that require a 4 year degree. There are lots of them. That $50K is worth every penny if used correctly. Oh, and I forgot to mention the education itself. Invaluable. 2 days ago, 14:01:37 – Flag – Reply Kirk Smith Really? sounds like a lot of state and private schools, people go into $50,000 of debt for a useless liberal arts degree. 2 days ago, 10:50:37 – Flag – Reply karl I taught at a for-profit career "college" for 3 years (Southwestern College in Cincinnati, owned by Lincoln Educational Services). Academic standards were non-existent and the quality of instruction was laughable. It was strictly a profit-generating enterprise. The product could have been anything - used cars, appliances, or telemarketing. It just happened to be educational services. Instructors were treated like crap, while the sales staff (also called admissions counselors) were treated like royalty, even though they were, by far, the least educated among the staff. Most students were completely unprepared for education of any kind. The "school" was making a killing on the public dole - fedral grants and loans extended to students with no hope of ever repaying the loans. The most important priority was bringing bodies in the door and hooking them with promises of jobs, for which most graduates are woefully unprepared. Students were passed along regardless of academic progress. Anything to keep the revenues coming in. The time for much stricter oversight of the industry is long overdue Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2000160,00.html#ixzz0sTYiXmVt