Ghana = The Butler University Bulldogs (Basketball)

Asamoah Gyan takes his ill-fated penalty against Uruguay.

Gordon Hayward: In Hollywood, his shot against Duke would've gone in.

In 2010, the Bulldogs and the Black Stars both eliminated my favorite team in their respective sports, then came heartbreakingly close to accomplishing something no team from their continent / conference ever had before. Butler defeated the "Shut It Down" Syracuse team ("What if Arinze Onuaku doesn't get injured in 2010?" is the 2nd most painful "what if" question in recent 'Cuse history, behind only "What if Fab Melo doesn't get suspended in 2012?") on its way to an appearance in the national championship game against Duke. Most people (myself included) expected Duke to crush Butler in this David vs. Goliath match-up, but the Bulldogs scrapped, clawed, and hung around all game. They even had a chance to win it on Gordon Hayward's half court buzzer beater, which came oh so close to going in!

The Bulldogs got all the way back to the title game a year later despite Hayward leaving early for the NBA draft. But the sequels to almost Hollywood sports movies are also never as good as the original. This time, UConn beat them convincingly. Last summer, Coach Brad Stevens, the architect of Butler's unprecedented success, left to coach the Boston Celtics. It remains to be seen what the Bulldogs can accomplish without him.

Ghana, meanwhile, eliminated the USA from its second consecutive World Cup in 2010 (I'm convinced that Ricardo Clark was a Ghanaian double agent.). They then faced Uruguay in the quarterfinals, with the chance to become the first African team to reach a World Cup semifinal. Then, this happened:

Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty, and Ghana lost in the penalty shootout. Some called this a cruel twist of fate, others called it karmic payback for Ghana's cynicism and gamesmanship in their two matches against the U.S. (Lookin' at you, Emmanuel Frimpong!) Since then, Ghana has seen the players who formed the nucleus of its successful 2006 and 2010 teams either age out of the squad entirely or lose their effectiveness; and many of its younger players have not developed as hoped. The Black Stars are now in serious trouble after the U.S. avenged their past defeats in the first game. If they lose to Germany today, Ghana will have the slimmest of chances to advance, needing to beat Portugal in their final group match and receive a lot of help. With the likes of Gyan, Kevin Prince-Boateng (who will be extra motivated facing Germany and his half brother Jerome), Kwadwo Asamoah, and others, Ghana has the talent to potentially pull an upset. They were a little unlucky against the U.S. (though not as unlucky as some would have you believe), but they'll need to be a lot more fundamentally sound to have a chance against the Germans.