In a country where its football fanatics think Ghana has a birthright to win every football match against all teams, against all odds, Coach Kwasi Appiah has a daunting task as the Black Stars play Mali in the second Group B match in the ongoing Nations Cup tournament. For many of those fans, a win is a must for Appiah in the game against Mali lest he begin writing his salutations of a resignation letter from a local coach who showed much promise but delivered little. If the current string of draws in the tournament means anything at all to Ghanaians, we must begin to appreciate that no team came to South Africa for holidays or a stroll on the park just to be walloped and go back home. Each team came on merit with a desire like that of Ghana, to win the trophy and go back home to put smiles on the faces of their passionate fans. That point must be emphasized to all who think that merely because Ghana is part of the tournament it must win it at all costs. I agree that 31 years without a trophy is too long. We must break the jinx, but the needless pressure and occasional outright insults being hurled at the coach and the team is not the way to go. Apart from goal keeper Fatau Dauda, not a single Black Stars player in the match against DR Congo played to the maximum. They all struggled. Yet a more experienced DR Congo team, managed by an even more experienced coach Claude Le Roy, could only manage a draw. They had to come from behind late in the game to secure that outcome. For this result, Le Roy has been applauded as a master tactician who put up a messianic performance against Ghana. On the contrary, Kwasi Appiah, who we say is largely inexperienced and who has assembled a relatively inexperienced team -and he had few options- has come under a barrage of criticism and threats from his own people because he drew his first game against an experienced team and an experienced coach. Hmmm. Football will always be illogical. His cross to bear is that he is coach for Ghana and he must win all his matches. And he must begin with Mali.