GETTING THE RIGHT BLEND IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME AND HOW STAMINA MUST BE IMPROVED. By KOFI AMOAKO DUODU

Dearest, Maniac Chieftains and unadulterated Fabulous addicts, no doubt you are all fretting about the heavy loss to the Dutch, and have you not all given me my stone when I said with no apology last week that as for Amoah and Tagoe, forget them? The morning after can you imagine the host of opinions blowing through the air and some well respected journalists slacked with their false opinion of Quincy and as you all know I am of the opinion that Quincy is our big gun who will get us out of various entanglements in the very near future and you just listen to this incredible display of ignorance meted out to a gullible public by so-called experts.

I check TV 3 and B.B.C. man, Ibrahim Sanni Diarra is on with Sammy Bartels as host and Diarra says about Quincy '…..and all those step-overs and nothing' and my 'heart came'. Look at a journalist exhibiting his dislike for Quincy, making a case when there was no case and letting me see that he must have been playing with the girls at breaktime instead of slugging it out with the boys on the soccer fields.

Bartels promptly corrects him that Quincy had given Amoah a neat ball which he failed to dart unto which was defence- splitting and also another 2 neat balls found Amoah who was completely 'at sea' as to what a thief must do in such situations. Quincy did nothing? Are you serious?

The Dutch opened in whirlwind fashion but by the 15th minute Quincy single-handedly made incisions from the right , one of which was a magnificent wall pass move with Amoah -- yes Quincy gave it to Amoah and skated past the last men and Amoah couldn't complement this surgical pure 'don't touch me' one-two, and a fast, goal-scoring chance had been toyed with. Yes, Matthew Amoah slacked on Quincy and there was a 10-minute Quincy raid that confused the Dutch and then all of a sudden it looked like the Stars' players saw that Quincy was running the show and decided to cut out services to him, and so till half time, nothing positive happened for Ghana, with Muntari at his lethargic best.

My radio is on one of the Twi stations and one brother whose name I missed said something that made me know that I can never give up on the Ghanaians so far as soccer is concerned. This smart-alec said 'Quincy nyaa Asamoah Gyan anka' meaning 'if only Quincy had Asamoah Gyan…' and it was plain the guy was just as disgusted with Amoah as I was, and one of my maniac chieftains says to me 'Natty, how come the BBC fella couldn't figure it out but this local Twi presenter can appreciate Quincy's input?'

And I say to the youth man, 'The Twi presentet, I know, must have been an excellent footballer as a teenager and imagining himself in Amoah's shoes, knows that Quincy has set up a one, two 'quickie'-- otherwise called 'to you to me' by I.K., a former Shaolin Park kingpin, every one say 'to you, to me'; yes, the Twi presenter alone knows how simple it is to flick Quincy a return pass, which instantly puts him face to face with the 'keeper, but the BBC guy, not knowing the game innately, is not even aware that Amoah has spoilt a serious defence-splitting move, and in the case of this placement, behind the last 2, which any hungry lion worth his salt should have darted for.

Instead, what did we see? Amoah was at sea and Mr Twi presenter knows in his soul that 'Walahi, Asamoah Gyan will never slumber with these top notch simple sophisticated defence-breachers, and he also knew that Quincy was the most goal-conscious, while his centre forward was thoroughly below standard and utterly spoilimg my viewing pleasure.'

Then here comes Nana Agyemang on World cup update on Metro TV, also disrespecting Quincy by saying 'he's lucky to be in the team' and ending by saying he doesn't know what Quincy is doing in the squad and our London- trained dreadlocks also couldn't fathom out what Mr Twi presenter had grasped in a trice. When you have not even seen Joe Debrah and Shamo Quaye, neither John Bannerman to Opoku Nti, you know not Robert Mensah, Mama Acquah or Seidu Anas, you got no clue what Abdul Razak and Adolf Armah, Robert Hammond and Polo could do, you have no appreciation of real trickery. They will no doubt exhibit their foreign roots and think they know about Ghana soccer even more than the homeboys. They certainly don't know that Quincy is one of our saviours, as the coming few weeks shall prove.

xx xx xx

To happier days: Robert Mensah was my idol and so I was my primary school team 'keeper and if you care to know, for 2 years our team never lost a match and guess who'd always get us the winning goal time and again, our present deputy Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia, so when I saw him as NDC campaign coordinator I said to myself' he's coming to score the winning goal for his party.

Our practice consisted of attack against defence and some diving header that Segbefia will score me with, from a Charles Woode corner-kick! Lord have mercy, you're only 11 years old, where did you learn this? And this Charles Woode guy had a full football field complete with full-size wooden goalposts at home [you see some before?] and this was my guy who could test Abedi Pele skill for skill. And Karl Tuffuor was our only substitute who'd replace Kwesi Osei Bonsu in the 2nd half, and you see Anthony Chinebuah of Coca Cola, who is the brain behind the just-ended Coca Cola U17 nationwide competition. Yes Chinebuah was team captain and Kwabena Boahene was called 'Abukari' and my left back once took a free-kick with his left foot and the ball hit his right hand for a foul.

I beg you but can you imagine that for a birthday present, my Aunty Beryl arranged for us to see Kotoko's African cup-winning match of 1970 with Englebert? Yes, in our garage, with a carpet on the ground and the wall as a screen, full projector and all. Can you beat that?

Or can you beat this -- I am playing at Kofi Koranteng's house and his uncle is Hearts of Oak chairman and he drives up in his sports Benz, tells us to join him and his don, Asimeng Bismark and before we realize we are at Accra Sports Stadium dressing room, with team Hearts in a Ga Mantse Gold Cup tusstle with city rivals Olympics, and can you imagine us 3 kids leading Polo ,Sanni Abdulai, Sam Armarteifio and the entire Phobians unto the turf, with me leading and Mama Acquah as Captain, and going to greet the Osu stand and Popular stand throng? “Ei, Kotoko supporter, today you go support Hearts 'by force”!

Hearts beat Oly 2-1, after extra time, with Polo's brother Yakubu Ahmed featuring for Oly. Can you now appreciate why I call myself the Chief Maniac and Emperor of Utopia with full vim? Now please feel this with me.

I really am appalled sometimes by our total dislike of the long ball which is a very good way to pile on pressure. Was it not a long ball by our 'keeper which Gyan capitalized on? 'Odame bo ball nu bra!'was taught to us by Abukari of Kotoko'70 squad, when he demanded a typical number 4 to number 9 long ball to snatch the first goal in that famous cup final in Kinshasa. The long ball must be employed more, especially from the fullbacks, just behind the opponents' full backs, for our wingers to hassile them well when the midfield is clogged up.

In this coming week, our coch must subject our team to some very arduous stamina works and merciless sprinting spurts, especially from our midfielders, who have to be disturbing the opponents with overabundant stamina. Please Milo, stamina is key, if we are to survive all the pressure-cookers we'll be thrown into.

I think Mumtari has to be deployed where he can shoot, which is from right to middle. We really waste him on the left and Quincy causes more damage on the left.

Peace.