I understand that the main purposes of friendly games are to give opportunities to new players and experiment with different formations.
But it makes little sense to me for a team to produce excellent results against two teams who were going to the World Cup – Japan and Iceland – but fail to produce a bold performance in a competitive qualifying game in which the team could’ve actually done better.
It is not the result that is most worrying. After all the Kenyans didn’t score a goal of their own but the bigger issues are the 90 minutes of lack of sharpness and efficacy of the Black Stars attack against a Kenyan opposition reduced to ten men for the last 30 minutes.
We paraded eight players from Europe’s Top 5 leagues. La Liga’s Raphael Dwamena and Thomas Partey, Afriyie Acquah, Nicholas Opoku and Kwadwo Asamoah from Italy’s Serie A and Daniel Amartey and Chrsitian Atsu of the EPL and Majeed Waris of Ligue 1 but – for 30 minutes – couldn’t break 10-man Kenya who had four Africa-based players in their starting eleven.
More worries were the selection and manner in which Kwesi Appiah’s substitutions were done.
Appiah set up his team in a 4-4-1-1 formation at the start. Goalkeeper Richard Ofori . Andy Yiadom.Nicholas Opoku. Daniel Amartey. Lumor Agbenyenu – Afriyie Acquah. Ebenezer Ofori. Christian Atsu. Edwin Gyasi – Thomas Partey – Majeed Waris.
Ghana’s best chance fell to substitute Raphael Dwamena in the 72nd minute after a through pass from AtleticoMadrid’s Thomas Partey but the Levante striker shot wide following similar efforts after coming on for Edwin Gyasiat the start of the second half.
Majeed Waris’s best moments were a shot off target in the 13th minute and a 19th minute poor header in the opening period.
Christian Atsu is a brilliant player and I’m big fan of him but sometimes he’s a bad timer on his forward runs on the flanks and this was evident in this game. On two occasions he was flagged offside in the first half on two great balls – that could’ve resulted in something positive- but the dribbler got trapped and he should not be getting caught too often considering his quality and the European level he’s been at. The Newcastle player also over hit some of his crosses to the forwards – also another important area of his game that must be improved.
Partey – as we all know in a Black Stars shirt – wasn’t causing too many attacking problems for the Kenyans as he dropped too deep most of the times but it may be the instruction from the manager.
But surprisingly after six games in charge – eleven games when friendlies are considered – of his second tenure with the Black Stars it seems Kwesi Appiah still hasn’t figured out who his main starting center forward is.
The former Asante Kotoko defender has tried and used six different strikers since June 2017 that he took over the team again – Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Ayew, Boakye Yiadom, Emmanuel Boateng, Raphael Dwamena and MajeedWaris.
He’s moved from Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Ayew, Boakye Yiadom. He’s also done some experiment with Emmanuel Boateng – injured for this selection and now he’s gone back to Majeed Waris who has one assist for Nantes this season.
Dwamena – 1 assist for Levante in 3 appearances this season – started Ghana’s last competitive fixture in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw against Egypt in November last year and also started the first AFCON qualifying win of 5-0 against Ethiopia in which he bagged a brace on his international debut playing alongside Asamoah Gyan and has since gone on to be a constant member of the team.
And so with Gyan, Jordan and Boakye Yiadom all not in the squad why did Waris walk into the start list ahead of the La Liga-based Dwamena? Hasn’t the former Zurich striker impressed so far? I think he has.
If the argument was that Waris is a familiar figure and a senior and so starting him wasn’t a big deal despite his long absence from the international scene why then was Kwadwo Asamoah not in the starting formation?
Or was it because Asamoah was truly not fully fit as reported? And Appiah didn’t want to risk him by handing him a start? Before the game Appiah was on record revealing a small injury the Inter Milan suffered at the team’s training session in Addis Ababa but after taking a place on the bench , the talented player – who has started every single Serie A game of Inter Milan this season – was the last of the three substitutions Kwesi Appiah did when Ghana actually needed an equalizer.
The own goal came in the 40th minute. First Ghana substitution was Dwamena for Gyasi in the 46th . Second was defender Harrison Afful for midfielder Ebenezer Ofori in the 58th and the last was Kwadwo Asamoah for Opare in the 72nd.
Dwamena, a striker coming in to boost the attack was okay but the idea of bringing in Afful – a defender – to send in the punts from the right was a poor one and yielded no good results because the Kenyan defenders led by David Ochieng and Musa Mohammed were bullying Waris and co aerially.
So what was the point in this substitution?
The left back position is another area of inconsistency. Lumor Agbenyenu seemed to have settled and was doing fine in the absence of Baba Rahman but for this game Appiah and his staff decided not to call him all in the name of trying other players as Opare started.
What happened to the exciting winger Thomas Agyepong?
What Appiah should not forget is that this is a qualification tournament – not friendlies – and you need a consistent team as we haven’t qualified yet .
It is true we are in a favorable group of Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Kenya and the Stars are generally expected to top the group but it will be stupid arrogance to underestimate these minnows and Saturday’s result is a clear warning.
Gariba
