Hey, it’s me again. I know you are still basking in Ghana’s victory over South Korea, well that was a close shave if you ask me but nonetheless, the boys dove their hearts out to nick that win over the Asian giants.
The final 10 minutes of the game may have been longer than the 80 minutes that had just flown by, the edginess, and uneasy pain of losing it all after gallantly doing their best to cement the victory raced through lots of Ghanaian minds.
Friday 2nd, December 2022, Ghana will be at it again in its ultimate group fixture against familiar foes, Uruguay. This is a South American side that denied, Ghana, a place in the semi-finals courtesy of Luis Suarez’s handball in the last minute of regulation time, which saw hearts broken and shattered in South Africa in 2010.
In the game against South Korea, things could have gone south, if we hadn’t switched up our performances in the dying embers of the game to bask in that victory.
I took time to enumerate a few pointers that could help us secure qualification against Uruguay on Friday.
To start with, I need to pat coach Otto Addo and his technical team on the back for how they set up the side to play against the Koreans, the level of fluidity, creativity, and sheer confidence that the boys displayed in that first half was clearly no fluke, which culminated in the aiding the team to race to a 2-0 goals lead in the first half. On the back of losing to Portugal, it was clear, they had learnt their lessons, I for one clamored for the sacrifice of the 3 centre back pairings to make a room full an attacking force in midfield or a Wideman to create width and engineer crosses into the box for our lone forward Inaki Williams, who had crumbs to feed from the middle and full-back options.
I think a player in the model of Mohammed Kudus should be the focal point of our attack, how do you have a talent in his capacity and fail to get the best out of him, it’s just unheard of, a lot of countries make the most of the talented players, in the end, you are assured of goals and assists, which translates into wins for the team, bragging rights and happiness for the fans at large. Kudus’ talent can’t be underestimated and he’s shown that on successive occasions, I think the technical team should map up a strategy to bring the best out of the young bull. It’s no fluke that, he’s earned the feat as the first Ghanaian player to score a brace in the FIFA World Cup and has attracted admirers in Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, and OGC Nice, France.
Another player that divides opinions is Thomas Partey of Arsenal, some section feel he doesn’t give off his best in BlackStars colors but I feel that criticism on the midfield anchor is a little bit on the stretch. Comparatively to the club side, he mostly sits deep, moves at will, power, pace and sets the team in motion for attacks, his defensive abilities in breaking the lines, and tackles is also worth pointing out but with Ghana, he’s mostly deployed in an advanced position with the idea that he can support the attack, assist and score occasional belters but how do you get him to thrive without affecting the shape and balance of the team. Personally, we need to play him in a more suitable role where he can purposely influence and impact games.
In the modern game, teams have the tendency of picking up wins from losing positions and vice versa, our last game against South Korea having posted a 2-0 first-half lead, you could see that complacency crept into the minds of the boys, who lazily conceded, two goals within a 3-minute interval, all from headers, a worrying sight which should be properly worked in training to prevent the team from conceding goals of such caliber in our last game to the Sky Blues.
Finally, we have our future in our hands against Uruguay, one thing that needs to be eschewed is the rationale for revenge. It’s something that has to be completely erased from the minds of the playing body and Ghanaians at large. The mantra should be geared towards securing qualification to the second round from Group H. I know it’s not beyond our boys to do the needful against an Uruguayan side that are winless in two games, having failed to score a goal in over 180 minutes of football action in Qatar. They will come to this game as wounded lions with the intention of winning which would dampen the hopes of Ghanaians.
