Ghana (Unimpressively) Go to Top of Group A

First of all, apologies for not having posted in the last two days. My computer has been acting funky this past week, so my plans for recapping the Ghana-Guinea match and previewing Ghana-Namibia didn’t work out. But now everything is working again, so things are back to normal at the Black Stars blog.

These are the only Ghanaians smiling tonight.

Goals: Ghana (Agogo 41). Video and pictures at the end of the post.

Thanks to the win over Namibia this morning and to Morocco losing to Guinea, Ghana is the only undefeated team in the group. However, Ghana still haven’t qualified for the quarterfinals yet. Since both Guinea and Morocco are only adrift of Ghana by three points, if Ghana lose their next match against Morocco and Guinea sees off Namibia, it’s possible that Ghana doesn’t make it into the next round because of goal difference.

But first, let’s talk about the game. There were some concerns of a defensive meltdown (gee that sounds familiar…), with John Mensah, John Paintsil, and Shilla Illiasu doubtful for the match. But thankfully, they all passed late fitness tests and were cleared to play.

This is the starting lineup that Claude LeRoy elected to go with:

Richard Kingson
John Paintsil - Mensah - Addo - Sarpei
Kingston - Essien - Muntari - Owusu-Abeyie
A. Gyan - Junior Agogo

Subs: Baffour Gyan (for A. Gyan), Andre Ayew for Kingston

After Morocco hammered Namibia 5-1, it was tempting to think that this would be an easy three points for the Black Stars. However, Namibia showed up to play today (as opposed to last Sunday). While Ghana did dominate the possession, they weren’t able to do much with it and squandered several good opportunities (I’m looking at you, Asamoah Gyan).

Ghana were immensely relieved when Junior Agogo broke the deadlock a few minutes from halftime. Laryea Kingston did most of the hard work, breaking through the right side and sending over the perfect pass over to Agogo, who did…something…with his back heel to score.

Michael Essien was voted as Man of the Match.

You would think that having scored the first goal, Ghana would be putting away their chances in the second half. But that was sadly not the case. Namibia tried to press their advantage and looked threatening during brief spells of the second half, but the game was never really out of Ghana’s hands (though you could argue that Namibia deserved to walk away with a point due to their dedicated defending). The only noteworthy event in the second half (besides Gyan’s misses) was Kingston picking up a totally unnecessary yellow card, which means he’ll be suspended for the all important game against Morocco next Monday. Stupid!

I have to say that I’m not very impressed with Ghana at the moment, despite the fact that they’re leading their group. I’m worried that their inability to put away their chances will come back to haunt them. Just take a look at our two main rivals in this group - both Guinea and Morocco have scored more goals than Ghana did.

We saw this during last Sunday’s game against Guinea and again today. Ghana are great at dominating midfield play and breaking up the opposing team’s possession, but they lose composure in the final third. Right now, Ghana are getting by, but the further they advance in this competition, the fewer opportunities at goal they will have.

LeRoy has been doing a lot of this.

It’s something that LeRoy will have to work on because Ghana’s next opponent - their toughest so far - is free scoring Morocco, who have the ability to tear holes in any defense at the tournament. And Ghana, who have yet to convince anyone about their ability to take home the trophy - host nation or not - better pray that they start playing like the favorites they are labeled to be.

Agogo’s goal:

Photos: