By Joseph Opio

APPEARING at a World Cup final is glory-inducing, but the Baptism of Fire that predictably awaits numerous football lightweights, can turn the occasion into a pride-stripping ritual. Damage-limitation will be the mantra for Paraguay, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia and Ghana who may easily find themselves occupying the punching-bag roles for soccer’s heavyweights in Germany. For these adorable whipping boys, it’s certainly not the winning but the taking part that counts.

GHANA
Coach: Ratomir Dujkovic
Star player: Essien
Prediction: 28th

By booking their flight to Germany, Ghana finally pieced together the timeless footballing jigsaw puzzle as to why Africa’s four-time champions had never merited an invite to the finals.
After an opening 1-0 defeat to Burkina Faso, Ghana’s legion of foreign stars started pulling its weight in the 2006 qualifiers to exorcise the demons of campaigns past.
The midfield trinity of captain Stephen Appiah, the industrious Michael Essien and Udinese’s Sulley Muntari led the revival.
Pitted against Italy, Czech Republic and USA, Ghana players are unlikely to overstay their visas in Germany.

SAUDI ARABIA
Coach: Marcos Paqueta
Star player: Sami Al-Jaber
Prediction: 27th

Saudi Arabia’s last adventure witnessed an 8-0 slaughter in their opener by Germany, from which juncture, the team sleepwalked towards a winless, scoreless exit thereafter.
The overriding target this time is categorical—to keep the score-lines respectable.

COSTA RICA
Coach: Alex Guimaraes
Star player: Wanchope
Prediction: 26th

The South Americans had to fashion a Lazarus-style comeback from the dead to reach their third World Cup finals. Costa Rica squeezed past soccer dwarfs Cuba in the first-round qualifier on the away goals rule.
Matters got worse before they got better as the team lost 2-1 and 3-0 at home against Mexico and the US respectively, before a goalless stalemate against Trinidad and the reappointment of Alexandre Guimaraes provoked a renaissance.
“We’re in Germany, by God,” Guimaraes admitted.

PARAGUAY
Coach: Anibal ‘Mano’ Ruiz
Star : Roque Santa Cruz
Prediction: 25th

Under normal circumstances, branding a nation that has featured at seven World Cups ‘underdogs’ could betray lunatic tendencies. Sadly for Paraguay, current circumstances are far from normal.

While experience is an essential ingredient in any World Cup crusade, too many creaking muscles can easily turn it a recipe for disaster.
(Sunday: The Outsiders)