Local league

I was happy when Kwesi Appiah stated that the only venue he has yet to visit in the local league is the Tarkwa T & A Park, home venue for Medeama Sporting Club. Indeed, any well-meaning national team coach cannot forgo a nation’s league and think he can chalk significant success. Even in national squads dominated by foreign-based players, coaches have gone through the drudgery of watching a hundred and one local matches before settling on a particular squad. It is significant here to mention that Kwesi Appiah’s philosophy coupled with a penchant to watch local players in action could make him the third Ghanaian coach to win an Africa Cup of Nations for the country.

Criteria for selection

One mistake most newly-appointed Black Stars coaches make is their criteria for selection. More often than not, they confine themselves to selecting players with starting-place statuses in their clubs. As a result, when other players are shining brighter than their ‘favourites’, they tend to beg questions regarding their own criteria and flinch in breaking their own rules. If my memory serves me right, ex-Black Stars coach Mariano Barreto bent his criteria a whisker to not only select players of top leagues but also gave consideration to players who plied their trade in the Championship, the second-tier league of England. His motive then was clear – he wanted to engage the services of Patrick Agyemang, who was then playing for then Championship side Queens Park Rangers. Significantly, Kwesi Appiah’s announcement that he will not have any particular criteria but will go in for those who can get him the results is more than welcoming. Some players are simply cut out for national teams willy nilly. Until recently when he scored three goals for Argentina against Switzerland, Lionel Messi had come under a barrage of criticisms in his home country for not delivering the goods for the Albiceleste. But the likes of Maxi Rodriguez, a bench warmer in Liverpool, were pulling the trigger with Argentina. But of course that did not mean Messi was not called up into the national team. Indeed, it would be “suicidal”, to quote Diego Maradona, to keep such an exceptional talent on the bench of the national team. It is important that Kwesi Appiah is not blinded by some of our ‘active’ players, who ply their professions in leagues that have no top-notch defenders to pose them any threats, so that if those players are given certain ratings on the internet, football lovers think they are the best. I may not have a technical eye but I don’t go by a mere fact that a player has scored. I watch carefully the manner in which the player scored to determine if he showed any glimpses of dexterity in scoring. I guess that is what guides most brilliant coaches and Kwesi Appiah must not be an exception in that sense.

Appiah must use technical know-how to select players

One reason why coaches who take over from Jose Mourinho fail is that they continue to use the same players brought in by the Portuguese. It tends to be a recipe for failure for them. Any good coach has players who execute his paper formation perfectly on the pitch. That is why no matter the array of stars he finds in a club, Mourinho will still want to beef up an already established squad with his own buys. One mistake Kwesi Appiah should not make is to strictly play with the same players who played the last match for his predecessor. At this point, it will be quite difficult for the Ghana Football Association to arrange a friendly match before the 2014 World Cup double-header with Lesotho and Zambia in June. As such, Appiah should strive to select his best for those two competitive matches. His resolve of selecting three players per position should be shelved for now so he can concentrate on engineering victories over the Crocodiles and the Chipolopolo. Whether he likes it or not, Appaih will be judged by his tactics in the qualifier against Lesotho.

I am happy he is not new to introducing new faces into the Black Stars. Indeed, when he was named the stopgap coach when Milovan Rajevac left, he called two relatively unknown players into the team that played Sudan in Kumasi. Seth Owusu of moribund Kessben FC and Samson Cudjoe of AshantiGold SC had debut call-ups into the senior national team. That really sent signals that Kwesi Appiah has his own ideas when it came to coaching and I will just call on all Ghanaians to rally behind the Black Stars former captain to bring the country honour. Much talk is bruited about that Ghana’s four-title glory in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations came through local coaches. I think it is the time for a fifth title and the man to deliver that will be Kwesi Appiah. So, let us give him all our support!!

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Trump Card

Well, according to Stevanovic, members of the Committee declined to extend his stay as coach of the Black Stars after he had requested to stay on. I just hope he does not deny ever passing this comment. By the way, after this statement came another one. Goran Stevanovic stated that he managed the Black Stars to 19 games which consisted of 10 wins, five draws and four losses and, according to him, that is an absolutely good record for a Black Stars coach. He further asked his interviewers to remember matches against big nations like England and Brazil. Inasmuch as I feel Goran’s citing of these matches is ad nauseam, I will not be surprised if he mentions them as his trump card for his next job.

But I am forced to differ on Stevanovic’s preen as a successful coach. It is indeed relative to claim success especially in a position where his compatriots set towering standards. It is heart-bleeding to know that among the recent coaches the Black Stars have had, Stevanovic is the only one who failed to unearth a local talent.

Barreto

Let me go back to the days of Mariano Barretto and the local talent that readily comes to mind is former Liberty Professionals’ player William Tiero. The Portuguese coach kept faith in this player and featured him in almost every match he handled. Upon all the criticisms, Barreto continued to play Tiero and even sent him to Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games. Tiero was one of the three senior players Ghana added to that squad as accepted by the tournament rules. I must say that there were other locally-based players like Abubakr Yahuza and Charles Asampong Taylor, who featured for Baretto during his stint as Black Stars coach. But most will remember his love for William Tiero in midfield. No wonder he later searched for a club for the former Kumasi Asante Kotoko player in Portugal.

Dujkovic

Then came Ratomir Dujkovic. This Serb was resolute regarding his faith in a midfielder for Heart of Lions– Haminu Draman. Upon all the media flack for playing Draman in top-notch matches, Dujkovic did not flinch in sending this midfielder to the 2006 World Cup. Not only did he send him, but sent other local players like Shilla Iliasu and Habib Mohammed formerly of Asante Kotoko and King Faisal Babes respectively. Indeed, these former local players at least got recognition with some European clubs who engaged their services.

Le Roy

Frenchman Claude Le Roy did not also shy away from at least unearthing a local talent. Anthony Annan and Afful Harrison among others were part of his squad that won Bronze at the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.

Rajevac

Before I even mention Milovan Rajevac and his local favourites, stop gap coach Sellas Tetteh unearthed one of Ghana’s current priceless assets. A young Berekum Arsenal midfielder by name Emmanuel Agyemang Badu truly justified himself in a Black Stars’ friendly against Australia in 2008. Honestly, I was taken aback at such a talented player, who I had hitherto not seen nor heard of in the local media. However, watching him in that friendly with Australia told me Agyemang-Badu was built for greatness. Badu was left out of most Black Stars suads but Sellas Tetteh kept faith in this young talent by naming him in his Black Satellites squad. Currently, without Agyemang Badu in a Black Stars set-up, great African coaches get a fresh impetus to beat Ghana as it happened in Equatorial Guinea.

Milovan Rajevac came at a time a new tournament was introduced by the Confederation of African Football – African Nations Championship(CHAN), a tournament for exclusively locally-based players. As a result, Rajevac had no choice than to monitor these players in their respective clubs. Nonetheless, before the tournament even came up, he had spotted a Heart of Lions midfielder – Daniel Yeboah – and was featuring this player in almost all Black Stars matches. No wonder Yeboah, who also played for Liberty Professionals and Asante Kotoko, became the captain of the first CHAN team assembled by Ghana. From that CHAN team emerged later Black Stars players such as Samuel Inkoom, Yaw Antwi and Rahim Ayew.

Goran Stevanovic, on the other hand, did not have any penchant for local talent. His interest only lay with Black Star players plying their trade in Europe. He was only interested in using the internet to monitor his players. As a coach, he did not give any regard to local talent no wonder he brushed aside attempts to foist the Emmanuel Baffoes and the Rashid Sumailas on him. This is just one of the many reasons why I think Goran failed and so I ask him to come again with his definition that he was a successful coach for the Black Stars.

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Indisputably, Ghana’s successes in the world of football cannot be written without mentioning the immense contributions of Serbian trainers. At least three coaches from the eastern European nation have had the opportunity to coach the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars. Current coach, Goran ‘Plavi’ Stevanovic is the fourth Serb to handle the Black Stars. Though the first of these four, Milan Zivadinovic, left post unceremoniously, the Ghana Football Association, after being ditched by Portuguese Mariano Barreto which was a prequel to an unsuccessful second spell by German Burkhard Ziese, pinned faith in another Serb, Ratomir Dujkovic. The former Rwanda coach excelled at the helm by qualifying Ghana to her first ever world cup in 2006. He led Ghana to equal Nigeria and Senegal’s record in the world cup by qualifying the Black Stars from the group stage on their debut. These achievements came at the either side of a bad campaign at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in which Ghana failed to move out of the group stage, and worse of all, beaten 1-2 by less fancied Zimbabwe in the final roup game. Kofi Doja, as Dujkovic was affectionately called, was liked by a majority of the football populace. So, a marginal number of fans rooted for him when the issue of him staying or not came to the fore.

Ghana and world cup

After a love affair with Frenchman Claude Le Roy, who also left unceremoniously though the media were lied to that he had signed a contract extension, the Ghana Football Association settled on another Serb – Milovan Rajevac – to lead the Black Stars to another world cup and possibly win Ghana the Africa Cup of Nations. Milo, as he was affectionately called, achieved the former and missed the latter by a whisker. The former was even complemented with the surpassing of the record set by his compatriot at the 2006 World Cup. He nearly made Ghana the first African country to get to the semi-finals but for a last-minute penalty miss. I would not want to mention the player who missed the penalty for reasons better known to all of us! Again, when the issue regarding the retention of Milo came up, a marginal number of football enthusiasts went to the support of the Serb though the conservatives still rooted for a local coach.

‘Plavi’

Unfortunately, the kind of divided agitations for the cited Serbian coaches above cannot be said for current coach Goran Stevanovic. Plavi, as he likes to be called, took up the appointment on 15^th January, 2011 and confidently stated that it was time to win trophies. What an admirable benchmark! Most of us could not agree with him more. Ghana had been performing well on the continent as regards friendly matches and qualifiers and so the only missed piece of the jigsaw was a trophy, which Plavi assured will bring.

On 15^th December, 2011 when he was unveiling his 25-man Africa Cup of Nations’ provisional squad, he confidently asked the press and all gathered whether they are ready for trophies because, according to him, it was time for trophies. I am forced to believe many did not hear him but an answer to one of the routine questions he was asked is what has come to be indelibly etched in the minds of many. He said he would resign if he failed to bring the 2012 African Nations Cup trophy. And he failed to bring the trophy! So, what next?!

To the chagrin of many, Stevanovic has taken a U-turn on this statement he made by denying he ever put his job on the line. That was one of the several denials I witnessed in the Conference Room of the Ghana Football Association on 22^nd February, 2012. Management Committee members also denied ever having passed some comments on radio. I do not want to go into those but the furore that Stevanovic’s was met with said it all. As esoteric as it may be, Stevanovic is the first Serbian trainer to have a ‘unanimous aversion’ to his stay as coach of the Black Stars.

Post-AFCON 2012

Surprisingly, besides the apology he rendered for failure to bring the trophy, Stevanovic rather admonished those calling for his head not to be myopic by assessing him with the Africa Cup of Nations. Cheeky, isn’t it? He said they should assess him with friendly matches and qualifiers. This is where, in my opinion, Stevanovic has lost focus. If you took appointment and made winning trophies your priority and you failed at your first shot, why do you call on critiques to follow you where you want to turn the hand of the clock? No coach in charge of the Black Stars will use friendly matches and qualifiers as a yardstick because Ghana has grown beyond that. Ghana now needs to win a major tournament and the Africa Cup of Nations is the most realistic of the major tournaments. Therefore, Stevanovic should come clear on what his priorities were and what they are now. Indeed, with few days to go to determine his fate as per consultations by the GFA with their major stakeholders, Stevanovic should only be sacked if he thinks friendly matches like the 1-1 draw with England, and recently Chile, are what should be used to assess him.

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Under-fire Ghana coach says his hands are in the hands of the FA

A year ago, Goran Stevanovic walked into the Ghana Football Association press room a confident man flanked by members of the Association. An assured Kwesi Nyantekyi introduced our next Serbian miracle worker. Stevanovic seemed affable, spoke English (halting but he promised to improve), and brashly proclaimed he was here to get Ghana over the hump. He wanted to end the country’s 30-year drought. He said all the right things about Ghana having plenty talent and the right mix of players. He was eager to surpass his Serbian predecessors. Ghanaians hung onto his words like they do to those of a priest on Sunday espousing the prosperity doctrine.

We had been to the final of the African Cup of Nations and the quarter finals of the World Cup the previous year so there was evidence that he could. We all could envision the kind of lift a Cup would bring. We needed to believe him. It was our escape and it became our obsession particularly as some traditional giants failed to even get to the CAN.

Fast forward a year and the scene could not be any more different. Fresh off the failure in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea, here Plavi was leaning on assistant Kwasi Appiah like he was a crutch; Appiah suddenly turning interpreter for some questions. A once triumphant Nyantekyi also seemed subdued, resigned to a coach’s demise.

An already tense room became inflamed at the suggestion by the coach that he didn’t promise to resign if the Black Stars didn’t bring the Cup back. To be fair, listening to the clip he has a point. No matter. A coach with two losses over 18 matches has his head on the chopping block.

Before that, the GFA announced they were deferring the decision on the coach for two weeks pending consultation with its legal team. This was hardly a vote of confidence. In between there were apologies by the coach and the FA to Ghanaians for the team’s failure.

It’s been two weeks since Ghana exited the Cup of Nations. Fourteen days to let people’s emotions simmer down and reasoned judgments about the team take over. If Ghanaian journalists represent the mood of the country, then we are really, really MAD. We are angry at not winning the 2012 cup.We are upset about seemingly empty promises, and perhaps most of all, we are insulted because we feel we’re being lied to. But why are we so mad?

What happened between his appointment and now for there to be such open hostility towards him. There were shouts of ‘tsssooooo boooiiii’ at one stage as if one were going to war. Where did the negative feelings emanate from?

MODESTY

It has to do with the increasing cynicism that permeates many aspects of our society. It is manifested especially towards people in authority and intensifies as the reliable supply of basic amenities like water and electricity elude many. Football had all this while been our refuge, the place where we go to see Ghanaians excel, our center for excellence.

Plavi promised like an African politician and failed like one. His apology to the public seemed like someone saying what he wanted us to hear and it made us mad.

Despite criticisms of negative tactics, Milovan Rajevac endeared himself to Ghanaians. He was modest in everything he did. Rajevac lived here and his preference for track suits suggested a plain manner. He seemed shy, humble, he under promised and over delivered. He related to his players well and did not seem vindictive giving players like Sulley Muntari second chances when they acted out of turn.

Alhaji Grunsah may have stolen the show when he took the floor and pleaded with the coach to stay in Ghana. As only he could, he said, ‘when you’re an employee of UTC, you don’t spend more time at GNTC.’ He implored Plavi to spend more time in Ghana and work for the Ghanaian people. Visit local league centers, scout players, unearth talent was the cry.

If Plavi stays, which looks increasingly unlikely, he’ll do well to heed Grunsah’s advice for it’ll allow him to learn more about our football the culture in which it is played and the people who live by it. That knowledge will go a long way to inform his tactics and prevent him frombeing out of touch.

The 2010 World Cup had an unprecedented representation of Africa. South Africa, who qualified as hosts, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria and Ivory Coast, perhaps, mounted Africa’s toughest representation at the 2010 World Cup, which incidentally became the first to be hosted by the continent. Surprisingly, Africa’s representatives except Ghana performed abysmally.   Not only did Cameroon fail to pick a point at that world cup, but also hosts South Africa failed to make it from the group stage. Historically, it was the first time a host nation had failed to make it out of its group.

Nonetheless, Ghana fought hard to brandish Africa’s flag, which has virtually come to be represented by RED, YELLOW and GREEN since any flag of an African nation will have at least one of these colours. The Black Stars not only made it out of the group stages but also equaled Africa’s record in the history of the world cup. Indeed, the Black Stars came closer to a semi-final berth than any of Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions and Senegal’s Teranga Lions. It will be needless at this stage to mention the circumstances under which Ghana missed the chance to make history for herself in the world cup. But the Black Stars run at the 2010 World Cup coupled with the absence of giants like Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, who are former winners of the Africa Cu of Nations, puts Ghana ahead of any other favourite. Ghana’s expectation to win the tournament is greater than that of any of the other fifteen qualifiers and even if Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt had qualified, Ghana would have been considered a favourite.

Among the nations that shone at the 2010 World Cup were Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Ghana, Brazil, Japan and Argentina. The above-listed teams were the quarter finalists. Spain had already carved a niche for themselves going into the 2010 World Cup as European Champions. Indeed, not only did they lift the flag of Europe high but also broke a jinx of European nations winning the world cup on their continent. Notwithstanding, they stand favourites still to win the 2012 European Championships. The other two European nations in the above list had also performed well coming into the world cup. Germany were only second to Spain while the Netherlands had to succumb to an extra-time pressure from Russia in the quarter finals after winning all their three matches at the group stage.

Among the South American countries in the list, Brazil were better as compared to Argentina and Uruguay in the history of the world but Uruguay became the best-performing South American side. As if that was a fluke they went to the Copa America in 2011 to justify their performance at the world cup ahead of Brazil and even hosts of the 2011 Copa America Argentina.

The continent of Asia had Australia tagged as favourites since joining from the Oceanian region. However, Japan’s performance at the 2010 World Cup was so well-prosecuted at the 2011 Asian Cup that they pipped the Kangaroos of Australia 1-0 in the finals to win the tournament. It was a moment of justifying Japan’s tag as the best-performing Asian side at the 2010 World Cup.

Though there is no Oceanian representative in the list above, New Zealand, who represented that continent justified themselves as the only team not to have lost a match though they went out at the group stage.

North and Central America’s best-performing sides of Mexico and the United States of America, who went out of the 2010 world Cup at the Round of 16 appeared at the finals of the Gold Cup.

It is in this light that the best-performing African side at the 2010 World Cup – Ghana – has little option in not annexing the trophy. Expectation has been intensified as a result of performance in the past three Africa Cup of Nations. Indeed, Ghana’s performance pitched it above Ivory Coast (2^nd, 17 points) and Angola (3^rd, 11 points).

Performance at a world cup contributes little to performance in a continental tournament but events surrounding the Black Stars participation in the 2012 Africa Cup of nation lives them with little room of failure to win the trophy.

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Egypt’s charge

After Ghana tasted senior world cup football in 2006 in Germany, hankering for more of the nations cup title began dawning on the Black Stars though it was quite too late to catch the Pharaohs at that point. They were already with their fifth title when the realization came to Ghana and they came to spite Ghana in the face when they won their sixth title on the soils of Accra. They deepened Ghana’s woes in Angola where they left it late in the finals to beat the Black Stars 1-0 to clinch a three-peat of titles, well outstanding in the annals of the Africa Cup of Nations. That feat was like a bbd in hand worth two in the bush as then coach of the Pharaohs Hassan Shehata also broke a long standing record of Ghana’s Charles Kumi Gyamfi, a winner of the nations cup title both as a player and a coach.

Stevanovic’s resolve

Fortunately, Goran Stevanovic’s resolve to win titles for Ghana as he intimated during his unveiling gave some of us (or should I say me) the tell-tale sign that a fifth continental title for the Black Stars is not far-fetched. Though the path to this dream has been made smooth with the absence of nations like Egypt and Cameroon, glory can only begin in the players selected for the tournament. Some of us thought Stevanovic can only be the first expatriate coach to win a continental title for Ghana after his thumb-on-paper motive of announcing just the 23 players he wanted for the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea tournament one month early in order to get them fully concentrated for the battle ahead.

But events seemed to have changed and my confidence in the coach waned as he seemingly succumbed to pressure to have two additional players to his squad. Unfortunately, during the announcement of the 25-man squad last week, Goran Stevanovic did not hint in any way why he went for 25 instead of the originally purported 23…a chink in the Serb’s armour as too pliant?

I will not dwell much on that but will rather talk about the 23-man squad. Ooops! I made a mistake, 25-man squad!!

Stevanovic answers questions on his 25-man squad

Stevanovic will parade arguably one of the most inexperienced Black Stars squads for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. The team is inexperienced not by way of age but by way of participation at the continent’s flagship tournament.

Experience and inexperience

First of all, the most experienced player is right back John Paintsil of Leicester City. He has played at four CANs and has a higher chance of making his fifth appearance in Gabon-Equatorial Guinea. Paintsil was part of Osam Duodu’s side in Mali, Ratomir Dujkovic’ side in Egypt, Claude LeRoy’s side here in Ghana and Milovan Rajevac’s side in Angola. Perhaps, that experience in the right back position might have informed Stevanovic not to invite Harrison Afful, a player who has been outstanding in the Confederation of African Football’s flagship club competition.

Hard as it may come to us, the most inexperienced position of the squad is the goalkeeping department, which only boasts of a single appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations ad even that is without any cap. Daniel Adjei holds this record as he went to Angola for the 27^th edition of the nations cup. Unfortunately, Adjei will even go to Gabon-Equatorial Guinea as the second-choice goalkeeper. I stand to be corrected but Ghana has never sent an inexperienced goalkeeper as its first choice to a nations cup.

Regarding attackers, Asamoah Gyan, who will certainly lead Ghana’s attack has, strangely, only two appearances at the Cu of Nations to his credit. His botched debut on homesoil, which nearly cost his international career but for Didier Drogba and former President John Kufour’s pieces of advice, and his sole-shouldering effort also known as ‘One-Goal Project, at Angola in 2010. The other attacker with an experience is Prince Tagoe, who was at the 2006 Cup of nations in Egypt. The rest Jordan Ayew, Emmanuel Baffour and even Derek Asamoah have not set feet on Nations Cup soil. No wonder one of them, and possibly two, will not make the cut to Gabon-Equatorial Guinea.

The central defense’s top-notch experienced player in the nations cup is captain John Mensah with the 2002, 2006 and 2008 Africa Cup of Nations to his haul.

Let me not bore you too much with the positional statistics but among the 25 players called up by Goran Stevanovic, ten have not played at the Africa Cup of Nations. This constitutes 40% of the squad. Indeed out of the rest 60% (15 players), nine of them, which constitute 36% of the squad, have only appeared at the Africa Cup of Nations once. Only Andre Dede Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah and Anthony Annan join Gyan as the players to have a couple of appearances at Africa’s flagship tournament.

Dream of a fifth title

Generally, football smashes statistics but in an African tournament like the 2012 nations cup one cannot underestimate the contributions that these statistics can do to add to the superstitions of the African game. Undoubtedly, there is just a wafer-length difference between Stevanovic’s side and debutantes like Botswana, Niger and Equatorial Guinea. But if our dream of a fifth title comes through with this inexperienced squad, I will be the first to ask the Ghana Football Association to increase immoderately the salary of Coach Goran Stevanovic.

And just like Milovan Rajevac used a seemingly inexperienced side to reach the finals of the 2010 nations cup, Stevanovic can do same with his charges just that his burden has been made heavy as a result of the popularity of the Black Stars in global football currently. In other words, none of the teams gave Ghana a dog’s chance in 2010 but in 2012 the Black Stars, together with the Elephants(Cote d’Ivoire), Lions of Teranga(Senegal) and even the Stallions(Burkina Faso), will be the team to beat.

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Are the Black Stars poised to win a trophy after donkey years?

In the slim chance that you haven’t heard by now, the Black Stars of Ghana qualified for the 2012 Cup of Nations by beating Sudan 2-0. Truth be told the scoreline probably flattered Sudan as the Stars squandered some superb opportunities throughout the game. The score could easily have been 4-0. Alas, our profligacy made it a respectable scoreline…for Sudan!

As the final whistle sounded on this and other games across Africa and the casualty ward admitted some of the more accomplished teams in the last 20 years including Egypt, Cameroun, Nigeria and South Africa, the victory chants among some fans on my twitter feed were transformed from we have qualified to we have won the cup already. To those, I say ‘slow your roll.’ Our neighbor Cote d’Ivoire will have as much of a say as Ghana in determining who comes out tops in Equatorial Guinea/Gabon. Tunisia, Senegal and potentially Algeria have the quality to put a monkey wrench in Ghana’s plans. As I have previously mentioned and as this article considers, there are some flaws in our team that can be exploited on a bad day for the Stars.

Nevertheless, there is reason for optimism of the cautious kind.

Which brings us back to the game. In a critical moment when all was needed was a draw to go through, Goran Stevanovic showed a pragmatic side in how he set up the team. There were overwhelmingly more defensive minded players on the field than attacking. He was going to make it decidedly more difficult for Sudan to score by packing the midfield and defense. The set up harkened back to Milovan Rajevac’s strategy of one man up top with virtually the rest of the team playing behind the ball. It worked perfectly and the early goal by Asamoah Gyan made the approach even more formidable. The Sudanese chased shadows the whole game and rarely tested Adam Kwarasey. Key to the defensive organization were returnee captain John Mensah and dynamic midfielder Derek Boateng.

Attacking wise, the aim was to get the ball and play really balls up front to Asamoah Gyan with Kwadwo Asamoah, Sulley Muntari and Samuel Inkoom bombing forward in support. For this to work Gyan had to be strong in possession as he was often outnumbered. Boy, was he ever strong. The performance by Gyan was the best I have seen from him since the World Cup. He was as committed and as determined to prove a point as I have ever seen him. He even added a few party tricks along the way as Ghana built a comfortable 2-0 lead heading into half time. It was as though he wanted to silence any doubters and he certainly succeeded. With a goal to his name and tireless running throughout he was definitely a candidate for man of the match.

All in all, it was a very effective and efficient performance from the Stars with the red card to Isaac Vorsah the only blotch. We shall file that in the what in the world was he thinking category and move forward. It was a performance that greatly pleased the coach.

Holy Grail

Before the 21^st century, Ghana had achieved much in football. Ghana had won the Africa Cup of Nations four times, had played and won world cups organized by the world governing body of football –FIFA(at the junior levels). The only chink in the armour of Ghana football before then was having tasted world cup football at the senior level. The quest to qualify for a world cup became a Holy Grail year-in-year-out for some of the talented players of Ghana. However, in 2005 Ghana went in for the services of a coach, who had stunned the Black Stars by qualifying the Amavubis of Rwanda to the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2004. Serbian Ratomir Dujkovic took the reins of the Black Stars and masterminded an unbeaten run in 2005 winning Ghana the Best Moved team on the FIFA ranking. One trait most of us came to learn about Dujkovic was his intransigence in handling the team. That had long not been felt in the Black Stars camp.

2oo6 World Cup

Ratomir Dujkovic showed all and sundry he was in charge when he defied all suggestions to include Haminu Draman in the Black Stars squad for the 2006 World Cup. He did so at the expense of players like Baba Amando and Baffour Gyan. Most people wanted these two players to make the cut into the Black Stars but the Serbian tactician was intransigent by making them stand-by players. As if that was not enough, Dujkovic dropped one of Ghana’s most successful players in Europe – Samuel Osei-Kuffour – to the bench after Ghana’s first match at Germany 2006. He brought in the likes of Shilla Iliasu and Habib Mohammed, who justified their inclusion in the squad. Haminu Draman even snatched Ghana’s first goal against USA becoming one of the five Ghanaian players, who have scored at the senior world cup. Ghana equaled a feat chalked by Nigeria in 1994 by making it out of the group stages as a debutante African nation. A Serbian coach leading in this feat.

Another Serb

Then comes the 2010 World Cup! It took another Serb to qualify Ghana. Milovan Rajevac gave us the clue that Serbian coaches are strict disciplinarians. I remember in his early days in charge of the Black Stars, he pinned ‘holding midfield hope’ in Daniel Yeboah then with Heart of Lions. Though many criticized the use of this player in that position, the Serbian remained resolute. Fortunately, he qualified the Black Stars to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup. Indeed, ‘Milo’ made it clear that he was going to make judicious use of the U-20 players, who had brought glory to Ghana and Africa the previous year by winning the U-20 World Cup. I should think that some of the senior players might be subtly questioning the ambition of the Serb in his resolve to use the U-20 players. Fortunately or unfortunately, he mad that clear by sidelining Sulley Ali Muntari from the Africa Cup of Nations squad. Even in the face of injuries to some of the senior and more experienced players viz Stephen Appiah, John Paintsil and John Mensah, he turned a blind eye on the UEFA Champions League winner with Inter Milan. Milovan Rajevac, at the Africa Cup of Nations, achieved what had not been witnessed with the Black Stars in eighteen years. They played in the finals of the continental competition though they lost 0-1 to Egypt.

Feat of Cameroon and Senegal

Then came selection of players for Ghana’s second appearance at the world cup. Milovan Rajevac excluded experience and went for youthful exuberance. The likes of Eric Addo, Haminu Draman and Laryea Kingston were excluded from the final list of 23 players. Our sympathies went to Kingston, who was yet to taste senior world cup football. Here again, the Serb was intransigent to the flaring up of Kingston. Rajevac went to the 2010 World Cup to equal the feat of Cameroon and Senegal set in 1990 and 2002 respectively.

‘Plavi’

Then goes a Serb and comes another Serb. Goran Stevanovic replaced Milovan Rajevac as coach of the Black Stars. ‘Plavi’ made it clear during his outdooring that he is in to win trophies for Ghana. Welcoming indeed! He starts to work with the core of Milovan Rajevac’s players. But the ‘discipline issues’ the Serbs deal with every time they handle the senior national soccer team seem to be rearing its ugly head again.

KP Boateng

Rumours are that there is a stand-off between Stevanovic and one of Ghana’s 2010 World Cup stars – Kevin-Prince Boateng. Boateng is reported to be choosy when it comes to Black Star matches. For Ghana to have qualified to the 2010 World Cup in which he played, the Black Stars went to Tripoli, Libreville, Bloemfontein for the first round and went to Omdurman, Bamako and Cotonou for the second round of qualifying besides Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi. What every player must know is that Ghana can play in any part of the globe. It could be in Europe, Asia, Australasia, South America, North America or even in Africa. And every fit player called must honour the rare invitation, which many players wish to have. Otherwise, plausible reasons must be given of any absence. Reports I had, though I was not in Ghana then, indicate that when he was called for the Congo-Ghana CAN 2012 qualifier, KP Boateng scratched himself out with the reason that he was injured only to appear in the Black Stars camp three days later for the Ghana-England friendly. Well, KP Boateng may have been healed within hours but I think he should have made the turn of events clear to the team’s management committee if not the coach. Again comes another friendly and KP Boateng adduces pretexts of injury only for us to see him play in the Italian Super Coppa in China. I believe in KP Boateng as one of the few successful players to have switched nationality for Ghana. But if this attitude is anything to go by, then he is making way for his own downfall. He should better learn from the likes of Sulley Muntari and Sammy Osei Kuffour as to how a positionin a national team contributes to a player’s club success. He should even know better as his performance in the 2010 World Cup contributed in no small measure to his esoteric transfer from Genoa to AC Milan. No two Italian clubs would have reached such an agreement!!

Dede Ayew-Prince Boateng combination

The Stephen Appiah-Michael Essien-Sulley Muntari-Laryea Kingston dominated Ghana’s midfield in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup and I think the Dede Ayew-Prince Boateng combination is one of the best on the continent. As a result, the earlier KP Boateng irons out issues with the coach, the better for him. And I would want to hold breath for Boateng and write that if it is an intension of any player or technical person to sabotage KP Boateng, that person is doing so at his or her own risk.

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