South Africa 2010, Ahoy! - But Where Is The Dujkovic Credit?
A friend was grappling with a technical report he was expected to submit to the board secretary the following morning when I visited him.
He sighed that if he had not chosen a career which had condemned his working life to managing machines, products and people, he would have opted for a profession in sports correspondence.
He said he envied sportswriters because they “are the freest of professionals; they are not inhibited by language or facts”.
He had watched the recent Confederation Cup Final Match between Brazil and the US the previous evening and had read the commentaries.
“You could not do this in a technical report,” he huffed. Thinking over his comments, I think he has a point. Soccer analysts do not seem restrained in choice of language.
Why should they? They must give vent to the emotions expressed by supporters of a losing team and the euphoria of the victors. Soccer victory or defeat touches the pride of a nation and no word should be spared in expressing it.
Thus, it was all right for a football national hero to be lambasted as a narcissist when he shed tears for poor performance at the World Cup; a national team was down-rated as a pack of animals; defeated national team players were dismissed as journeymen.
Tough language is not restricted to sportswriters alone. At a time when football had been dragged in the morass, an outgoing GAF Chairman expressed his disgust by saying, “Ghana soccer has been raped.” Soccer and rape?
Yes, he said so softly but with very deep feeling. I am putting myself in the shoes of a sports analyst (In Ghana who is not a soccer commentator?) but I hope I can control my language.
I am a sports enthusiast and can attest to the searing emotions that find expression in strange language in the aftermath of a match.
I have followed the Black Stars in their recent World Cup qualifying matches. Scrappily and doggedly like a cock in its maiden fight, they have managed to defeat their more dazzling opponents. They pecked, scratched and flapped their wings from Bamako to Omdurman.
They match on and are now at the top of their group with the maximum points. But where is the Dujkovic Credit?
The Bamako Match was a watershed. The display against Benin was quite ordinary and a loss in Bamako would have confirmed a downward slide. Too much was at stake.
By a mischief of fate, the Metro TV transmission was a complete botched job. We saw mostly dark patches of cloud on our screens. In moments of clarity, what we saw was not pleasing at all.
The Stars’ play was disjointed and full of stray passes. Their forte was the defence. Somehow they stood firm and warded off the gifted Malians. That the Stars won that match was entirely due to the erratic approach of the opponents to goal-scoring.
In Omdurman, the Stars played beautiful soccer in the first 15 minutes only, and packed off to their scrappy ways, losing possession very often and were unable to take on their opponents. In that state of confusion, a good team would have over-run the Stars.
But they won again and we have not ceased asking ourselves, “Are we winning or are we lucky?”
Let me put my comments into context by viewing the Stars’ recent performance on a split screen with any of the matches played during the Confederation Cup Finals in South Africa.
The Stars’ standard of play is not a patch on what Egypt, the US or rookies like New Zealand and Iraq showed.
One might argue that it is a mark of a great team that it continues winning while playing badly. We must not forget that the Stars played good soccer at Germany 2006 and if we put the World Cup displays on another split screen with what they play now, a viewer cannot but conclude that there has been retrogression and this is happening in a period when teams like South Africa, Gabon and even Libya have uplifted the quality of their games. So what is the problem? Is it coaching, quality of players or poor administration?
Dujkovic built a complete team with players who are still in the national team. They perform well for their individual clubs in some of the world’s toughest leagues.
They might suffer the inevitable dips in form due to injuries but there should be worthy replacements. How did Dujkovic build the Stars of 2006 after the debacle of Egypt 2006?
I believe the GFA of the time which incidentally is still in office took notice and that when it recruited Claude Le Roy after Dujkovic had left they gave the successor a remit. Didn’t they?
The first thing the GFA did was to embark on a world tour to play friendlies with teams that were off-form or attempting build-ups.
The Stars won most of the matches, capping their performances with the thrashing of Nigeria in London. Sports writers screamed the hurrahs without questioning the quality of play. It took a 5-0 thrashing by Saudi Arabia to bring us down to earth.
The fact was that Le Roy had relied on the credit Dujkovic had built. The credit was exhausted and at Ghana 2008, an ageing Cameroon team showed that in football, skills and formations mattered.
There was paucity of those and other ingredients in our games. From a layman’s point of view let me attempt scoring the Stars on the technical factors. I should be pardoned for hitting hard on my C-keys, but that is the way I see them.
Passing- C; Dribbling- C; Shooting- C+; Set Pieces- C-; Use of Space- C-; Crosses-C-; Speed- C; Physical Fitness- C.
See what Joel Santana has done to the Senior and the Junior teams of South Africa! With patient team- building and discipline The Bafana can now match Brazil and Spain boot for boot and one should not be surprised if they defeat our teams in major competitions.
One may ask if we give our coaches enough time and the free hand to build our teams. It appears that in our haste for instant results, they are not given time to build the teams. Milo is no Santana. He is no Dujkovic either.
But would it not make sense to put him to the test of team-building with long-term objectives and specific targets? Remember, the Bafana was a laughing stock at CAN 2008 but Pereira warned teams to be on the look-out for them in 2010?
This issue brings me to the administration of soccer in this country. While drafting this piece, I came across a good article written by Prof. Wayo Seini in the Daily Graphic of June 30, 2008 titled, “Weep not, President Nyantakyi” It about sums up most of the reasons why professional soccer in general has been on the downward trend in Ghana.
I would not like to summarise it for fear of detracting from this wonderful piece. Commerce, and not traditions, I agree, does drive modern soccer. But the technical structures have to be put in place to promote professionalism and good, winning football.
To ignore this fact is like building a foundation on shifting sands. I am not sure if professional soccer analysts see things as Prof. Seini’s and my layman’s lenses reveal them. The GFA appears like an elite club with entangling interests.
They are only interested in selling out young players who promptly disappear from the soccer radar. They will wave the FIFA rules of non-governmental interference in your face if the government of the day attempts straightening things out.
The fact of the matter is that Ghana soccer is not making any progress. Any action by a Government that had to cough $20m to build and refurbish stadia recently should not be viewed as interference. Even in Herr Sepp Blatter’s Switzerland, the government does make laws to regulate sports.
Let us not be fooled by recent wins in Omdurman and Bamako. Were we in South Africa for the Confederation Cup, what would have been the story?
There is no doubt that we would be in South Africa in 2010 if Mali and Sudan continue in their lackadaisical ways. We pray they do, to the benefit of Ghana but will we be able to match our performance of Germany 2006 in South Africa 2010?