The Black Meteors bottled a fine opportunity to advance to the semi-finals of the ongoing AFCON U23 tournament as they drew 1-1 with Guinea in Morocco.
Following the team’s heavy battering against, Morocco, it prompted a reaction from, Coach Tanko to make wholesale changes to his setup, Afriyie-Barnieh, and Emmanuel Essiem, were reposed back into the line-up, Ashie-Quaye, Nathaniel Adjei got their first start of the campaign, whiles surprisingly Ernest Nuamah was dropped to the bench against Guinea.
AFCON U23 – Five things we learned from Black Meteors’ defeat to Morocco
I noticed a few things that didn’t work in our fair on the day preventing us from qualifying to the next stage of the competition.
First and foremost, the team was sloppy in possession. The way the boys played on the day made you wonder if they are not taught how to properly possess the ball in training because they were loads of gaping holes to how the balls played on the day. They were uncomfortable with the balls at their feet, at every inch of play that they received a pass, they either fumbled possession or were quick to release the ball and at every turn, either the ball went to the opposing player or the ball went out of touch. It was just sad to see how the boys were not confident and comfortable with the ball at their feet contrary to how the Guinea looked more composed to engineer and progress the ball from the back either through the middle or the flanks and our technical handlers had no cues to stop them from enjoying a large chunk of possession. They bossed 56.1% against our 43.9% on the day. Our accurate passes on the day were miles apart, we managed 292 passes to their 389 on the day, which clearly showed that there was a system to possess the ball and to work to perfection in their favor.
Also, Creativity was lacking in our game. in the entire course of the game, we struggled to create any decent chances from a well-worked move on the day. The team profited from a miscued kick from the goalkeeper, Keita in the 33rd minute of the game which they scored from but in the entire game, they managed only three shots on target from their eight goals attempt. The midfield pairing of Essiem and Hafiz Ibrahim was out of sorts and barely created any decent opportunity for the forward makeup which comprised Fatawu Issahaku, Afriyie Barnieh, and Emmanuel Yeboah to feed off. The Guinea’s created and created a plethora of chances but for their inexperience and poor finishing they only managed to score just one from their fifteen goal attempts.
AFCON U23 – Black Meteors miss out on semi’s after drawing Guinea
I listened to coach Tanko’s presser after the game and he highlighted concentration as key to us being ousted from the tournament. In our first game against, Congo we conceded two soft goals in regulation time, the second game against Morocco, we conceded two goals in a quarter of the game so I was hoping that the technical team had noticed this recurring feature within the setup and found an antidote to it, like they say, lightening doesn’t strike twice but this time it did, thrice against Guinea. They gave themselves the lifeline from captain, Fofana’s sweet strike which fizzled past Danlad in post for Ghana for the equalizer.
Our match-day tactics deployed a backline of three center-backs, Afrane, Adjei, and Yegbe, they did well to shut the profligate, Guinea side from scoring in the first half of the game but it was least surprising when they conceded on the quarter-hour mark in the second half. That was their eighth goal conceded in three games. For a side that had been tipped as one of the pre-tournament favorites to win the competition, your attack was important as your defense but it looked as though the handlers didn’t deem that area of our game as prime importance. We conceded very basic goals we could have avoided, in our 1-1 draw the defender had the singular chance to head the ball out of safety but no, he headed the ball right into the motion of play which fell kindly to the Guinea captain, Fofana who stroke the ball with venom beyond the reach of the nomadic, Danlad Ibrahim in post for the Black Meteors, 1-1. I wondered why, the technical team did a poor job in the three games by tinkering with the defensive line and shape.
Watch: Ghana Black Meteors training session before Guinea clash
Another glowing feature about this setup was the lack of squad depth and quality. The technical handlers of this team had a duty to Ghanaians but failed. They were expected to scout the entire breadth of the country for the finest group of talents to represent national interest but that was not high on the agenda. Most of the bunch recruited were ill-prepared for the occasion, short of confidence, and couldn’t exhibit the needed technical skills and abilities expected from them and it was just saddening. The men at the helm of affairs have failed us when we needed them the most.
It will be a long road from the mud of failure, hopefully, in the next few years, we rinse ourselves with a clear road map on how to properly develop and inculcate modern trends into our game to better equip us for the task ahead or else we will continually struggle at major tournament similarly to how we have performed on other national fonts.
