Matt Lockwood Frightens the World’s Top Players in the Game of Hope.
While most players enjoyed a well earned break during the closed season that wasn’t the case for Matt Lockwood as he took part in Michael Essien’s ‘Game of Hope and Inspiration’ last month alongside some of the biggest names in the world football.
Lockwood turned out for a World XI against an Africa XI in the Ghanaian capital of Accra on June 8th in a game organised by Chelsea midfielder Micheal Essien to raise money for his charity foundation and it was to raise $80,000 for four charities across the continent.
Lockwood first got involved in 2011 when he snapped up an invitation through a friend with Chelsea connections to play in Essien’s ‘Peace Game’ at the Accra Sports Stadium. In that match where his World XI beat Africa 4-2, he marked none other than Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor and was up against the Spurs front man again when he accepted the invite to play in this year’s ‘Game of Hope and Inspiration.’
The organisers were keen to get someone from a Scottish club and appreciated the effort Matt made to take part in the ‘Peace Game’ and having enjoyed it and got on very well with everyone, he jumped at the chance to take part in this year’s game
Matt flew out to Accra on Friday 7th June from Gatwick after spending a few days catching up with family and friends back home and arrived to a tremendous welcome. In the evening there was a welcoming party to allow everyone to get to know each other with every player being introduced on stage and a charity auction to raise money for the Michael Essien Charity Foundation.
On the Saturday morning Lockwood and his team mates were introduced to the president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama at the presidential palace, the Golden Jubilee House which Matt enjoyed very much.
“It was a great experience meeting the president of Ghana and seeing the presidential palace and he was so excited to meet some of top players bless him”
In the afternoon it was on to the Accra National Sports Stadium for the match which was shown live on television across the whole continent on the ABN Channel on SKY in the UK.
In 2011 Matt had played at centre-half as Ashley Cole claimed the left-back berth but this time he was in his more familiar full back role, starting the match wearing number seventeen.
The starting line ups were as follows:
Africa XI – Richard Kingson (Unattached – last club Blackpool), Emmanuel Eboue (Galatasaray), John Mensah (Rennes), Osei Kuffuour (Retired – former Bayern Munich), John Paintsil (Hapoel Tel Aviv), Kwame Ayew (Retired – former Sporting Lisbon), George Boateng (T-Team), Michael Essien (Chelsea), Stephen Appiah (Unattached – last club Vojvodina Novi Sad), Jay Jay Okocha (Retired – former Bolton Wanderers), Emmanuel Adebayor (Tottenham Hotspur)
World XI – Jamal Blackman (Chelsea), Pascal Chimbonda (Unattached – last club Doncaster Rovers), Van Houet (Unattached), Ricardo Carvalho (Monaco), Matt Lockwood (Dundee FC), Jamie Lawrence (Tooting & Micham United), Jody Morris (Unattached – last club Bristol City), Michael Ballack (Retired – former Chelsea), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Lomana LuaLua (Karabukspor), Djibril Cisse (Kuban Krasnodar)
This year there were a lot more players involved who are still playing meaning the standard was higher than 2011 and the Africa team was coached by former World Cup winner Marcel Desailly and captained by Micheal Essien. Lockwood’s World XI side was led by recently retired former Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack who enjoyed his own testimonial in Leipzig the week before in which he scored a hat-trick and in which Michael Essien also played and scored in.
The match kicked off in a festive atmosphere in beautiful, hot weather and although it was played at a fairly slow pace, it was enjoyable nonetheless. Many of the African stars were greeted with thunderous applause every time they touched the ball and the 25,000 in attendance went wild when man-of-the-moment Michael Essien opened the scoring in 21 minutes.
A few minutes later however, former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse equalised for the World XI team but just before half-time the Ghanian born, former Dutch internationalist George Boateng managed to fool Chelsea’s Under-20 goalkeeper Jamal Blackman to give the African side a 2-1 interval lead.
After the break Jay Jay Okocha got Africa’s third after Adebayor dribbled past a horde of defenders, got a lucky break off the keeper, stopped the ball on the line and called for Okocha to score the goal. Jay Jay rushed in and toe-poked the ball over the line before the nearest defender could clear to make it 3-1.
That goal was typical of the many fancy tricks and flicks that many of the players were trying in an attempt to entertain the crowd while Lockwood himself looked to play it simple running up and down his wing.
“The lads were all trying to do impossible things, score from six yards and giving the ball away left right and centre and at half-time me and Jody Morris were saying ‘is there any danger of just doing it simple?’ It was a little frustrating making those runs in that heat and not getting the ball but it was all great fun.”
Danish striker Thomas Dalgaard who plays for Viborg pulled one back for World XI after coming off the bench to make it 3-2 and the scoring was complete when Augustine Arhinful, a 1996 Ghaniann Olympian who now serves as a member of the Ghana FA’s technical committee made it 4-2.
There was a roll on / roll off substitute policy to give the players a breather in the heat. Matt played about seventy minutes and had to contend with former Arsenal right-back Emmanuel Eboue bombing down his wing and Adebayor and Okocha drifting out wide and it was great to test himself against these established internationalists.
“You wouldn’t get a chance normally to play against these guys and it was a really good experience but I think I frightened the live out of them in the dressing room telling them all about my experiences.”
It was revenge for the African side after losing by the same score line two years before and both sides were presented with medals to commemorate the occasion at the end of the match.
“To go to a country like Ghana which I had never been to before 2011”, recalls Matt “was an experience in itself and a real eye opener. When driving through the country you can see such extreme poverty and extreme wealth in the same street. It’s bizarre!”
“Everyone was so friendly though and it’s a really nice place and the fact I went back again this year really says it all. I did enjoy it the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it this time.”
“All these guys you play with are household names but they don’t act like that and they are as good as gold and really genuine, nice guys as well as being wonderful footballers. A few of us swapped numbers and I have made new friends and I have already bumped into Ricardo Carvalho and his family in Portugal a few weeks after when I was there with my family on holiday.”
After the match there was a concert party with lots of different acts and there was a dance off between some of the players which has made its way on YouTube.
“A few of the boys have got some moves and Djibril Cisse and Adebayor were giving it large. They were trying to get Michael Essien up but he was having none of it and is definitely not a dancer”
Matt didn’t get involved in the dance off either but it was a tremendous honour for him to be ‘giving it large’ with some of the best players in the world on the pitch in the afternoon.
It was also an honour for Matt’s club Dundee FC to have one of their players involved in the prestigious event and he did his club proud. He is only the second Dundee player to play in a representative match after Alex Hamilton played for the Rest of Europe against Scandinavia in 1964 and Matt already has his invite for the next game in two years time.
