Ghana Black Stars, where are the coaches?

By E.K. Kissi

Ghana Black Stars have been barren over 30 years and the diehard fans are still waiting for the elusive trophies to arrive at Accra Airport. The question every fan wants answer to is: where are the coaches and the players who can help Ghana win trophies? As a team, the Black Stars are regressing and need introspection.

After making the round of sixteen in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the team maintained good form by finishing 2008 ANC third place, 2010 AFCON second place, 2010 World Cup quarter-finals and 2012 ANC fourth place. Finishing fourth in the just ended AFCON means the team is declining. As a result, it is time to examine the coaches and the players and anticipation of bringing in emerging stars.

It is absolutely clear that everyone watching the current Black Stars coaching staff and its player choices knows what they are doing incorrectly, but the coaching team has been stubborn in rectifying the weaknesses in the team. Therefore, Ghana goes to tournaments after tournaments and come home empty. Every Black Stars fan seems to be blaming Asamoah Gyan for Ghana’s exit from the 2012 AFCON, I completely disagree!! I put the blame on the coaching staff. Specifically, the head coach Plavi!!

In the past, Asamoah Gyan has proved that taking penalties is not one of his strengths as a striker. Why did the coaching staff allowed him to take the penalty against Zambia? In 2006 World Cup, Gyan missed a penalty against Czech Republic and in 2010 World Cup, Gyan again missed penalty against Uruguay. Moreover, prior to 2012 AFCON, Gyan unsurprisingly guess what, missed a penalty against South Korea in a friendly match in Seoul. After all these penalties misses, it was insanity to allow him to take the penalty against Zambia.

Do the coaches learn from past mistakes? Someone defines insanity as “repetition of the same mistakes.” Every Tom or Dick should leave Asamoah Gyan alone, he went to battle for his nation by executing orders from his superiors, the coaching staff. Players, like soldiers are on the field of battle to execute orders when directed. Plavi and his coaching staff should take the heat not the player. They selected the player to take the penalty despite established facts against his effectiveness. I am surprised that the coach has not emerged publicly to defend Gyan and accept the blame.

I believe strongly that history, trends and statistics are pertinent. A trend has Iong emerged that very few nations win the African Cup of Nations without incorporating players in their starting line-up from the domestic leagues. Ghana accomplished its last AFCON victory in 1982 with local players. Cameroon had a lot of local players in their starting line-up when they were winning in the 80s. Also, Algeria in 1990, Ivory Coast in 1992, Nigeria in 1994, South Africa in 1996, Egypt in 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010. Now Zambia has added to this trend. Even Sudan’s recent improvement comes from local players.

It has to be noted that since Ghana’s last title in 1982, Egypt has won five titles and Cameroon four (1984, 1988, 2000 and 2002). Ghana needs to back up its football pedigree with titles.

Is Ghana’s coaching staff lazy? Ghana is a nation blessed with soccer talents. However, we keep defying the winning trend exhibited by Egypt, Cameroon and Zambia by relying exclusively on players playing in abroad or “abrochire.” Contracted missionary coaches consistently take the easy way out by calling players outside Ghana and failing to unearth talents on the domestic front. Where is scouting in the domestic league?

This is where a lot of fans miss E.K. Afranie, C.K. Gyamfi and Osam Doudu. These Ghanaian coaches knew how to unearth new talents for the Black Stars cost effectively. They were never paid comparable compensation to what contracted missionary coaches have been earning. However, they knew how to scout in the domestic league to find players to fill trouble positions within the team. More importantly, Ghanaian coaches have accounted for all AFCON trophies in the GFA offices. There are no statistics proving that contracted outside coaches do better or win trophies than their Ghanaian counterparts. As a result, I do not know why Ghanaian coaches are constantly overlooked and paid less by GFA.

In addition, historically Ghanaian coaches have been flexible in trying players in different positions as well as unearthing talent. For example, John Mensah used to be a left fullback until Osam Duodu moved him to central defense during 2002 AFCON in Mali after Sammy Kuffour was sent home. John Pantsil was a midfielder with Berekum Arsenals and Sulley played left fullback with the 2001 silver wining Under-20 team. Therefore, it is time to experiment by moving Jonathan Mensah to the right fullback position.

The current coaching staff needs to find fullbacks and strikers from the domestic league or elsewhere for the Black Stars. Pantsil is getting old and Samuel Inkoom is not the answer. Each time Inkoom has played in a tournament as right full back, the team has been punished!!

For instance, during the 2009 Under-20 World Cup final match in Egypt, Inkoom had the ball on the right side surrounded by the Brazilians; confused, he gave the ball away. As a consequence, the Brazilians broke towards goal and Daniel Addo had to commit a professional foul resulting in a red card, forcing Ghana to play with 10 men. In 2010 AFCON final match against Egypt in Angola, the Egyptians took advantage of Inkoom and Lee Addy to score the cup winning goal. In 2012 AFCON quarter-final match, Tunisia’s scouting report on Ghana was to take advantage of Ghana’s weak lateral defenders. Inkoom lack of size and height enabled the Tunisians to pick him out, floated the ball high in the eighteen for their big and tall central defender to out jumped and outmuscled Inkoom to score.

Despite all these signs of weakness as a fullback, Inkoom was selected by the coach for the Zambian game and he paid the coach back by passing the ball to the Zambian forward to orchestrate the winning goal against Ghana. Inkoom peaked at the youth level and is currently not a Black Stars material. Give Opare a chance or scout the local league for fullbacks. More importantly, as mentioned, experiment moving Jonathan Mensah to right fullback position. The Black Stars have more central defensive options. The coaches should give Jerry Akaminko, John Kuffour and Awal Mohammed a chance to back up Isaac Vorsah, John Mensah and John Boye.

Other areas the coaches need to do a good job scouting are the creative midfielder position, wings and the striking area. Ghana was successful with wingers who were speedy, good crosses of the ball and can score goals. Examples are John Bannerman, Nketiah Yawson, Kofi Abbrey, Francis Kumi and Dramani. Where is Opuku Agyeman?

After legendary captain Stephen Appiah retired, Derek Boateng is a player who should play as the creative midfielder feeding the strikers in a 4-4-2 formation. He is a great dribbler and passer of the ball capable of giving defense splitting passes to the strikers. Other possible changes capable of changing the team’s fortune are dropping Prince Tagoe as a backup striker and considering Jeffrey Schlupp, Emmanuel Baffour, Boakye Yiadom, Kwame Nsor or Emmanuel Clottey.

Sulley Muntari is on his last lap of honor; the coaching staff should start considering players such as Ismeal Yartey, William Owusu (Eleven Wise) and Rabui Mohammed as his possible replacements.

Overall, the fans should be irate with the coaching staff for playing the same players over and over despite persistent mistakes, under performing and failing to win trophies. The coaching staff has become lazy in scouting to unearth talents on the domestic front and elsewhere; instead, they are opting for quick fixes. The fans miss the days when players play for Black Stars first, before going abroad. The missionary coaches rather scout outside the country for talents rather than to travel inside Ghana unearthing the next Michael Essien.

As the trends have elucidated, the coaching staff needs to learn from the successes of Egypt, Cameroon and Zambia and incorporate fresh talents from the domestic league with the established stars. This strategy coupled with avoiding insanity by learning from past experiences and emerging trends could be the formula needed to end the 30 years Black Stars’ trophy drought.

Good luck to the Black Stars next time!!

P.S: Let's have a dialogue devoid of insults and divisive statements. Comments should come from Stars fans capable of constructive debate.