Fixing the Black Stars’ Defensive Weaknesses

By E.K. Kissi

Congratulations to the Black Stars for qualifying to the AFCON 2012 quarter finals!! More work need to be done by the Stars before the ultimate objective of ending the 30 years trophy drought.

In recent times, Ghana Black Stars have displayed great defensive effectiveness. However, two areas which get the team in trouble defensively are high line offside traps which allow the opposing forwards to sneak behind the defense and cause havoc and lack of concentration during opposing team’s set pieces.

With offside traps, when the defense move up and creates a huge area between the team’s defensive line and the goal keeper, the Black Stars are exploited for goals by the opposing teams. For instance, each time Ghana meets Brazil, the Stars are defeated because of misguided offside traps. The 2006 World Cup match against Brazil gives many Black Stars fans nightmares as all the goals scored by Brazil were because of botched high defensive line offside traps. Also, Ghana’s recent lost to Brazil in London resulted in botched offside trap.

Moreover, during the Black Stars game against Botswana, the team’s defensive line was too high, thus allowing the Botswana player to have a big space between the defensive line and the goal keeper. As a consequence, the Black Stars captain John Mensah had to pull the breakaway player down resulting in his send off.

During the course of the knockout stages of the AFCON 2012, let’s hope the Black Stars do not employ high defensive line offside traps, especially, near midfield. The Black Stars defense should leave limited space between themselves and the goal keeper so that the keeper can grab any ball which goes beyond the defense.

In 2008 AFCON quarter finals match against Nigeria in Ghana, John Mensah was red carded because the Nigerian striker had a big space behind the defense to run and meet the ball for a similar breakaway on goal.

Aside from offside traps, the Black Stars generally need to concentrate on set pieces outside the team’s box. Twice Ghana has lost competitive matches because the team failed to pay attention to the free kick taker while setting its wall. For example, in a 2006 AFCON group stage match against Nigeria, Taiwo took his free kick very quickly and scored while Sammy Adjei was setting his wall.

In 1996 Atlanta Olympics games quarter finals match against Brazil, Brazil also took their free kick quickly while Sammy Kuffour and his colleagues were trying to set the wall. At that time in Miami, observing lack of concentration on the side of the Ghana team, Brazil’s striker Bebeto took the free kick quickly by passing the ball to Ronaldo, who easily scored for Brazil. As a result, Ghana lost the game 4 goals to 2 after taking 2 to 1 lead before half time.

Going forward in AFCON 2012, the Black Stars should watch out for these defensive lapses emerging from lost concentration on set pieces and botched high line offside traps. Ghana has effective defense; however, the two defensive weaknesses mentioned should be corrected by the technical team before they become a bane to the Black Stars’ championship ambitions.

Good luck to the Black Stars!! The mission is winning the trophy!!