The Black Stars Of Ghana: 12 General Observations & The Way Forward — Prof. Romeo Writes

Writeup by: Nanayaw Amponsah Romeo, Todays Media, Ejura-Ashanti, Via SIXSCRIBES —The passion of the nation has been football, specifically, The Black Stars.

In spite of the economic hardship, the demands of The Senior National Team have always been provided. We give them everything including the best training facilities and bonuses.

We never gave them a chance after losing to Brazil and winning narrowly against Nicaragua. Our hopes rose to the skies when we defeated Switzerland

I knew we wouldn’t do well at the World Cup because we had players with no World Cup experience coupled with lack of cohesion for they haven’t played enough to understand their play and patterns.

Again, we had a Coach who isn’t up to the task with his CV(Trainer-Scout). Nonetheless, we rallied behind them and they failed again. My observation: 

1. Our team lacks team work and cohesion. The players haven’t played enough to understand their movements and playing patterns. 

2. We have issues with our technical men. Our head coach and his team made tactical errors especially with their team selection and role assignments in our games.

3. We were left down by some key players in our games. Partey didn’t play so well and that affected us. Jordan Ayew let the team down with individual errors and he can be pardoned for errors are part of the game. Baba Rahman still haven’t convinced majority of Ghanaians as to why he should start our games. 

4. We lost concentration in all our games. We conceded 7 goals within a space of 15 minutes in all matches put together. This means that our technical team lacked the skills to manage games when we score or concede goals.

5. We didn’t pay attention to the comments of our opponents. The Koreans and Uruguayans said in our pre-matches that we lack team work and are deficient in our defense citing our side defense as the weakest link yet our technical team couldn’t find a solution to that. Our side defense were to be blamed for all the goals conceded against South Korea and Uruguay. 

6. We need to have a long term policy that will see Ghana winning the next two AFCON if not the next AFCON. We need to maintain majority of our boys , guide them to choose clubs that will give them playing time so it reflects on our national teams.

7. The GFA and Technical Team should let Ghanaians know the criteria for selection. The taxpayer pays the team so they deserve to know the criteria. Calls ups should not be based on (Coaches)personal opinions but should be on grounds that will help the nation.

8. Competent people should be employed devoid of colour, be it Ghanaian or Expatriate to lead the team.

9. There should be a cap for our local players in our national team just to promote our league. An example is Afriyie B Daniel who played so well when called upon against the Swiss.

10. Political leaders and GFA should be real with the people of Ghana when it comes to tournaments. THE GFA boss made comments that suggested that we were at the same level with the “BIG NATIONS OF FOOTBALL. A lot of Ghanaians have suffered heart aches  with no monetary rewards as compared to the team who suffered insults and backlash with “LOTS of DOLLARS” in their accounts.

11. There should be proper transition and a national programme for all national teams.

12. Uncommitted players should never be given a call up to our team- we work together and enjoy together.