No No No!! - These aren't our Black Stars
The signs were evident for long but the depth of sinking of this Black Stars is unimaginable.
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The 2-2 draw with Mozambique last Monday in their final group B clash at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) was only a nail that confirmed the rundown pedigree of Africa's once brightest football light.
That Ghana failed to make it from a group that included Mozambique and Cape Verde is already an embarrassing story to tell, but to finish in the manner of the dreadful collapse against Mozambique and suffer a second straight group-stage exit at the AFCON, is a shameful reality of a diseased football nation.
The curious question of how the team fell from the height of a somewhat impressive outing at the Qatar FIFA World Cup in November 2022 where they emerged as a competitive force against the might of Portugal and Uruguay, to the shambles of the 2023 AFCON in Côte d'Ivoire has left majority of the blame at the doorstep of head coach, Chris Hughton, and his technical staff.
Four-time champions
Ghana, four-time champions of Africa, boasts some of the greatest players that walked the African football terrain.
From the days of the iconic Charles Kumi Gyamfi and Edward Aggrey-Fynn, to Osei Kofi, Mohammed Polo, Adolf Armah, Opoku Nti, Abdul Razak, Abedi Pele, Tony Yeboah, Tony Baffoe, Joe Odoi, Kwasi Appiah, Emmanuel Armah ‘Senegal’, to the more recent era of Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Laryea Kingston, Sammy Adjei, Richard Kingson, Asamoah Gyan, John Paintsil, John Mensah and their peers, the Black Stars have built solid teams in the past even if it did not yield the elusive fifth continental trophy.
Instead, in the absence of the injured set of Thomas Partey, Tariq Lamptey and Daniel Kofi Kyere, Coach Hughton’s team appeared to lack both ambition and the character to compete for the coveted trophy which has eluded Ghana since 1982.
The spiritless displays, including suspicious injury claims and elementary mistakes in successive matches, had put the professionalism and loyalty of players and their accomplices in the technical team and management officials on the line of criticism.
Given the revival the team enjoyed in Qatar under caretaker coach, Otto Addo, after a spiritless qualifying campaign that left South Africa blaming a referee for not qualifying in Ghana's stead, Hughton may well find it difficult to extricate himself from the current state of the team.
From team selection to substitutions, the coach’s judgement has been called into question, with each of the team’s three matches at the ill-fated AFCON 2023 seemingly impacted by his decisions.
He started on a strange note when he invited 55 players to camp on December 20, 2023, and pruned the team to 27 by the time the players had started arriving.
After watching the Black Stars crash out of the tournament at the group stage for the second time in a row, former captain of Togo, Emmanuel Adebayor, remarked: “They (Black Stars) knew this was a key game for the country, and the way they played was just unbelievable.
They played with no motivation, no anger and no communication.
They played like they were just there for fun”.
American football writer and analyst, Scott Geelan, further indicted Ghana football as a whole, the technical team and team tactics, specifically, for the early exit from the tournament.
“Ghana deserve this. For so many reasons.
Lack of squad planning for a number of years.
Poor squad balance here. Picking a goalkeeper who hasn’t played all season.
Trying to park the bus and Uber negative against an opponent they should have been trying to kill off,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Goalkeeper choice
The choice of Richard Ofori as Ghana’s starting goalkeeper in all three games at the tournament has come under scrutiny. Ofori has been a redundant member of Orlando Pirates of South Africa in the current season, but got the nod ahead of Lawrence Ati-Zigi, who was a revelation for Ghana in Qatar, and Jojo Walacot, a regular for the team before injury stopped him from going to the Qatar tournament.
Ofori conceded twice in each of the three games, but Mozambique’s equaliser last Tuesday night provided the damning verdict of his lost form.
With a pedestrian effort heading across the goal line as the clock ticked towards the end of additional time play, he carelessly threw his hand at the ball, conceding a corner kick that fetched the killer goal.
Experienced local coach, Ken Augustt, a blunt character known for his adherence to discipline, said: “Nepotism and cronyism have destroyed Ghana football lately”.
He said a myriad of issues continued to bedevil the Black Stars beyond the indiscretion of the coach in his selection and substitutions, stressing that the layers of management supervising the Black Stars outnumbered the number of players they superintended.
“The Black Stars have a management team different from the GFA itself that manages the team.
Then the team has a manager in the shape of a coach and his technical staff, a welfare officer, medical staff and others.
“So who actually manages the Black Stars? When the roles conflict in such a clumsy manner, there are bound to be difficulties, including player selection,” he said.
Coach Augustt, a former coach of Great Olympics, Power FC and other Ghana Premier League sides, said the current technical team of the Black Stars had hardly proved themselves before being thrust into the demanding roles they occupied.
“Team selection, substitutions, managing player ego and others come with experience and competence.
They are not fetched from the roadside.
“It was evident that the selection and substitutions, especially in the final group game against Mozambique, were just to massage the egos of some players or to satisfy some important people.
It is just impossible to justify the substitution of Joseph Paintsil,” he said.
Hughton’s tenure
Hughton’s tenure has produced unimpressive results for the Black Stars, including 4-0 and 2-0 defeats to USA and Mexico in friendlies in 2023.
His team also lost 1-0 to Comoros in a Nations Cup qualifier, drew with Madagascar and managed a 1-0 victory over Central African Republic.
But Hughton aside, the GFA’s own contribution to the team’s preparations was curious.
For a tournament in next door Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana initially intended to camp in South Africa for the team’s preparation.
At the time, South Africa’s neighbour, Namibia, were in Ghana to prepare.
Amid the backlash of the criticism of the decision, vis-a-vis the cost of preparations, the GFA reversed the decision and camped the team in Kumasi for their preparations.
The team never recovered from that decision.