Black Stars Losing to Tunisia: The Way Forward with Change

Some will call it unfortunate, others will call it a game, most will call it a cheat by the referee.

Ghana Lost on Penalty Shootout to Tunisia after a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes.

This has called for attention and immediate actions to be taken as its the first time since 2006 as Ghana has been progressing to Either the last two or Four in Afcon tournaments.

I have observed a few shortfalls in our team and if we are able to tackle them, we'll progress to take the tittle sooner.

1. Rubbishing Senior Players: We all know that even in our society we live in, we need elders to guide us talk less of football, a child that thinks he needs nobody to succeed will certainly end as prodigal and unfortunate in life. Where the elder sees sitting a child can't see even when he climbs an iroko Tree, why do you think we still have the likes of Mikel, Wilfred Bonney, Mohammed Sallah Play for their national team even at old age.

Most of our leaders within team per what an insider disclosed to me try extorting monies from the bonuses of these senior players and when they resist, they either refuse to field them or call them to play, thinking they are harming them.

The presence of a senior player scares the opponent, compelling more player to go after such a player and leaving the other junior players with space and pace to threaten the forward.

Once you field inexperienced and young players only, you don't scare the opponent much and by this push them to attack you. Mind you, Ghana has been winning not only because we can play well but also because the opponent gets a panic when the team is mentioned, who are the team, the players and their achievements either at club, Afcon or the World Stage.

2. Revisiting your Mess and Eating It.
Nobody will ever be pleased with you after you have rejected and humiliated them openly. We had a reason for sending this coach away in the first place. How come we have gone for the same problem again?.

He was sacked In 2014 after it was detected he was tampering with winning bonuses of Player by slashing them, this made the team underperform and gradually messed the team up.

A new coach was Employed, Avram Grant and we saw improvement even to the extend that the team Got to the finals of the 2015 Afcon.

The whole issue of poor performance started when our old problems were revisited even to the extend that we had to forgo training for spiritual predictions that Ghana would win Afcon 2019.

He has come to make money for good and by this pays not attention to counsel because nobody knew how he was able to regain his position as coach and so by that nobody can tell him what to do, its that simple.

3. Not Reviewing our Performance:
The Senior National team has always been weak when it come to penalty shootouts not because we can't do it, but because we don't add it to our priority list. We feel we can do it in 90 minutes forgetting not all 90minutes can go in your favor.

We fail to see the skill in some relevant keepers like Stephen Adams whose penalty Saves sent us to the CHAN finals in 2014. This was noticed by the Then coach of Nigeria, Stephen Keshie who heaped praises on the Goalkeeper. Ghana won 4-1 on penalties that memorable day.

The likes of Stephen Adams Should be called back to the team.

Furthermore, we don't take corner kicks, free kicks seriously as other countries do. When its a free kick or corner kick, its either way off target or over the Bar. This has always been the case in the team and nothing is being done to change the story, you won't get too many chances.

To continue, I realised John Boye became a striker all of a sudden go front and back, this cost us a lot as the goal scored by Tunisia was due to his carelessness, Jonathan Mensah would have stayed behind to ensure the polls are covered, the best option to snatch the ball from the strikers.

Finally, I realised there was division in the team even to the extend that the coach had his best side, I realised senior players Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah, Jonathan Mensah whose names scared defenders were not being introduced till we are approaching 90minutes.

Division brought us down but let's always remember that senior players will always be senior players you can always try cheating(Bonuses) and rejecting them but you can never win without experience and elders.

By: Tuorimuo Elvis Philip
Citizen not Spectator.
Afcon2019mess.