Africa Rallies Behind Ghana in World Cup Play

July 2, 2010— -- U.S. fans disappointed in last week's World Cup loss to Ghana might take some solace in the fact that Team USA's loss has become an entire continent's gain.

Africans, setting aside their differences, are pulling together to cheer on the West African country in today's quarter final match against Uruguay. If the team wins, it will become the first African squad ever to make it to a World Cup semi-final round.

The significance of this also being the first World Cup held on African soil isn't lost on Ghana's players either.

"We've made everybody proud," Asamoah Gyan, the striker who scored Ghana's second goal against the U.S. in overtime, told reporters. "Not Ghana alone, but the whole of Africa."

Throughout the continent people are calling Ghana, nicknamed the Black Stars, "Africa's team." In South Africa street vendors have replaced South African flags, with Ghanaian ones. Fans of the country's Bafana Bafana team, which was eliminated in the group stages, are now chanting "Bghana, Bghana." In Kenya, sports bars are waving Ghanaian flags, inviting fans to come out show support for Africa.

Young soccer players across the continent are drawing inspiration from the team's continuing triumph. In Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums located outside of Nairobi, kids say watching the Black Stars and how the continent has pulled together to support the team is motivating them to work hard on the field.

"Even me I'm seeing one day I'm going to be there representing Africa," says Santos Okoth, 15, who plays for the Kibera Umoja youth league. Umoja means "together" in Swahili. "It will be Africa United, not for Kenya."

Collins Odhiambo, the coach for Kibera Umoja, says this World Cup has helped his players see themselves as part of something greater than a tribe or nation. "They are saying, 'if Ghana can do it, I can do it'," says Odhiambo.

Six African teams qualified for the World Cup this year: Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and host nation South Africa. Expectations for African soccer were high. Nearly all of the teams have at least one prominent international soccer star playing for them.