Black Stars midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah says the Black Stars' heartbreaking exit in South Africa four years ago can give them the impetus to do better in Brazil.

Ghana seemed on her way to a history-making semi-final until Asamoah Gyan missed a last minute penalty after Uruguay's Luis Suarez had handled the all on the line.

"We're confident that we'll be able to give a good account of ourselves," Asamoah told Reuters in an e-mail interview a month ahead of the tournament.

"We're in a tough group, there's no denying that, but we going to the competition following a strong qualifying campaign in which we won five out of six games," he added.

"It's our third consecutive appearance in the World Cup finals, we hope to have a long run and we'll be doing all we possibly can to make that happen.

"In addition, even more Ghanaians are now playing in Europe's top five leagues - this international experience will serve us in good stead." The Accra-born Asamoah is already a veteran international at the age of 25, having made his debut at 17 in 2006. He now has 59 caps, scoring four times, for the Black Stars and was lauded as Ghana Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

He believes the Black Stars have put their disappointing exit from the 2010 World Cup firmly behind them and can draw on that experience to emerge from their group. But it was heartbreaking to lose in such a way, he conceded.

"We thought we played well and had done enough to reach the semi-finals. To come that close to making history and then see it slip away is something you don't easily forget," he said.

"However, we've moved on and taken both the positives and negatives of the last campaign on board - and now we're fully determined to put our experience to good use in Brazil."

"If you enter any competition your ambition has to be to win it, and to do so you need to face strong teams at some stage. We have shown in the past that we can perform when others may have written us off - and we're confident we can do that again."