This week one prevalent issue that was making airwaves across the media landscape and social media was the low turnout at the stadium.
This issue drew large responses from the quarters of the GFA, which suggests that football is not dead as frantically suggested by others but is still active in the country.
As this back and forth waged into a heated furnace of arguments and backlash, the GFA eased it down with a dose of a 25-man squad for the BlackStars doubleheader against Angola in the AFCON qualifiers.
Chris Hughton’s first squad announcement pending his official unveiling in Kumasi where the game will take place on Sunday.
Well, I took time to analyze the squad and these are some of my observations from his first official squad as head coach of the BlackStars.
For the first time in years, the squad contains players that got the nod based on merit and are actively playing at their varied clubs across the globe. This is a massive coup for the coach, and his technical team which will afford them the opportunity of trying out different players and systems. I know the core of the team from the World Cup is still present but this squad certainly provides a good feeling to what the coach wants to achieve with them.
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Then again, injuries to some squad members, and player inactivity paved way for others to make the squad, Baba Rahman, a player that divides opinions into several fronts couldn’t make the squad as a result of an injury he suffered whiles playing for English Championship side, Reading FC saw Patrick Kpozo called up as his replacement, Fatawu Issahaku has just played 85 minutes for Sporting Lisbon in the Portugal Liga and that wasn’t enough to sway the technical handlers, Joseph Painstil got the nod following his impressive outings for Genk, 20 goals contributions in 24 appearances, Ashimeru as well back in the squad.
Another glowing feature about this squad is its youthfulness and experience. Most of the squad members are young and have acquired appreciable levels of experience and that is something, the new gaffer can tap into and positively harness to get the best out of them moving forward. These bunch have what it takes to make mother Ghana proud and with Chris Hughton at the helm of affairs, he will be given the free hand to make and take bold decisions on behalf of the country’s men’s first team.
Also, there’s that bit about local inclusion from the betPawa Premier League, inasmuch as this conversation draws loads of propositions and arguments, it’s fair to say, that most of our home-based boys haven’t shown a lot of promise to make the 25-man squad when Barnieh and Danlad made the World Cup squad, it was evident what the duo had achieved and how far they had come prior to their inclusion. This time none of them made the squad as well the other local players. It’s justified in my opinion.
Ghana is billed to play Angola in the 2023 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, hopefully, this 25-man squad give the Ghanaians their money’s worth on March,23 and 27,2023 in Kumasi and Luanda.
