Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Pragmatic View

Christopher Opoku wrote a beautiful piece taking us all back in time to support his argument on how inspte of the injuries the Black Starts could yet still pull a surprise and perhaps win the tournament. I did enjoy his history lesson.

His message though had one flaw, in that football has moved so far away from what it was in the 60s, 70s and even the 1980s. Football is now a global money making machine, the management of which has moved on a thousand fold in the last 20 years. The CAN tournament itself has involved generating so much interest worldwide and is no longer an African interest anymore but a global interest. Teams therefore prepare well for the tournament.

Incidentally, Ghana has not won the CAN since 1982 and that makes 28 years! You see, strategies have changed, marketing and even the game has also changed; at this level the little things make a big difference given the magnitude of the tournament. For example, in the years Christopher you mentioned (1960-1980) the coach could make brilliant changes to the team at the stroke of a pen as all the players were his disposal right at home…he watched them day in and day out. Ghana’s premiership by African standards was one of the most competitive.

Now the coach has no access to most of the players he calls to camp because they play abroad. The coach has a maximum of 7-10 days to get players together, gel and get any strategic messages across before the tournament. He clearly does not have a lot of time at his disposal.

Ghana’s current team is blessed with talents but they come against teams that have gelled and played at the highest level. So you see the very little details matter when preparing for a tournament like this. The coach cannot nit pick based on what he sees on TV as players need to gain understanding and get used to each other. A tournament of this magnitude cannot afford poor preparation and mistakes concerning call-ups should be a thing of the past. So any good coach has to “start right first time” in order to expect good results. One expects a selection of players numbering 30-35 to make camp to justify their inclusion. The very little details like where to camp, the effects of the altitude and temperature difference (acclimatisation), tournament fitness, injuries etc can decide player selection.

Therefore it is fundamentality wrong for any coach to select 23 players outright perhaps based on their history or even form at any given time because in football anything can happen…last minute injuries, certain players not being able to cope with the altitude or simply not jellying with team. I don’t buy the idea of the supposed conflict when you have to send some players home after camp. It is rather worse when you have to call up a player last minute because one risks outright refusal from various clubs as the country’s’ right to the player 14 days before the tournament (FIFA rule) would have been forfeited by then and therefore remain at the mercy of the players club. A position any serious coach does not want to be. Also, I believe it affects a player’s moral, as he may see himself as second choice or left over – this is up for debate but clearly does not augur well for team preparation. These small management mistakes make a big difference.

The second thing is that at this level experience does count…believe it or not this is a fact in today’s game. Egypt didn’t win it twice in a row for nothing. And if we cannot borrow a leaf from the books of winners then we cannot even start to think of winning. Let’s not loose sight of the fact that it has been 28 years since we last won the CAN in spite of the constant pool of talent. We must therefore be doing something wrong!

Christopher sighted examples of when Ghana had won the tournament with non-first team players. But I challenge anyone that you cannot expect that now. Otherwise people would have tipped Algeria for a win given their impressive run of form. Experience at this tournament counts indeed!

We shouldn’t look far to find an example: Ghana’s squad to CAN2006 was missing first team players through injury (important players who could have made a big difference). It did affect team confidence and delivery in spite of the fact that we presented a very dedicated and determined team. Our match against Nigeria was memorable one in that I never saw a determined Ghanaian side like that ever but we lost because we were simply no match to their experience and sheer power at that level. As history has it, we exited the tournament at the first round. Incidentally the coach at the time had also selected 23 ahead of time and stuck with his guns before last minute injuries struck. Do we learn anything from our mistakes?

The current team is as depleted as that of the 2006 team, perhaps even worse. Currently we cannot boast of depth which would have been our strength at this tournament as our first team players are all injured. Even if Micheal Essien was to make a last minute return to the team, he cannot stamp his authority as he will be battling match fitness. The same applies to John Mensah.

The rest of the squad may be hungry but as in 2006 they lack the requisite experience needed to make any impact at this level. Seven potential first team players lack experience at this level – Adiyah, Agyemeng Badu, Moussa Narry, Samuel Nkoom, Vorsah, Rahim Ayew, Ahinful or even Jonathan Mensah. I am a big fan of these players and believe they are knocking on the doors of the first team but this would be their first ever tournament at this level. You cannot convince me that Inkoom ( a great player in the making) can mark Drogba out of the game like Paintsil did in his last premiership game with Chelsea before his current injury. Experience counts for something and as good as players are they have to have experience at this level to win or even do well.

Christopher mentioned the element of surprise….funny he thinks we can pull a surprise throughout each game of this tournament. We may surprise a few teams but does that mean we can surprise the likes of Cameroon, Ivory Coast , Egypt etc..?

We needed to have done our home work well by testing these players in our friendly matches but we were concerned about Muntari, Essien and Gyan turning up at a friendly in Angola.

Note also that these last minute injuries have taken the technical bench by surprise, they now have to revise their plans and strategies under duress whilst battling to gel these players to play together for the first time. This is clearly mission impossible and the best Ghanaians have to hope for is that we give a good account of ourselves rather than win the tournament. I would rather we focus on making sure that this tournament would enable us to test some of the new players for the World Cup. I am expecting us to pull one or two surprises and then see some players who are at the periphery emerge like one Abedi Pele did at the CAN 1982.

So in reply to Christopher Opoku, I would say that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Ghana football but the light would not be on forever. It is up to us to reach for the end of that tunnel in time to capture that light and realise our dream. We do not want to be seen as the most talented team in Africa never to have anything.

Finally, I would like to exit with a thought provoking issue. We cannot afford not to learn from these mistakes going forward. There is no point having the current GFA board managing the affairs of Ghana football if they do not learn quickly from their mistakes. School boy mistakes of the past have cost Ghana dearly. Laryea Kingston couldn’t make the World cup because someone at the GFA failed to dispute the extended red card ban within 24 hours (as per FIFA regulations) which would have had the suspension reduced. This cost Kingston the world cup and was a contributory factor in our loss to Brazil as we lacked a credible replacement for Essien at the time when Kingston was in the form of his life. See the cost of a perceived small management error?

A rush decision to name a 23 man squad resulted in Kevin Prince Boateng being left of out a Ghana squad – an opportunity to see how this talented boy would gel with the Ghana team in a tournament before the world cup.

An appointment with Balotelli could have increased our chances of getting the player to consider playing for Ghana. But somehow someone failed to book an appointment with his management team. Say what you will, but these footballers are walking businesses with sponsors, agents, managers etc running their lives. You cannot just turn up in ones country and be making frantic phone calls to his estranged parents in a bid to secure a last minute appointment. It’s common sense that one should set up an appointment first even before boarding a plane. One does not have to live abroad to know this.

We have lost great players like Gerald Asamoah due to the way we handled these players even when they were willing to play for this great country. It is time for the GFA to step up, take responsibility and do their job professionally or quit. It is as simple as that.

Frederich Maafo