Ghana lost the plot against Cote d’ivoire in the opening fixture of the AFCON 2027 qualifying series in Boake.
Two goals in each interval through Yalcouyé just before half-time and captain Franck Kessié’s 58th minute penalty was enough to hand the home team the advantage.
In this piece look at the Key factors that accounted for the Black Stars’ loss.
Leadership Gap.
In a game where, the Black Stars needed to bring their A-game to bare, the absence of several key players of the team was evident. Once the likes of Jordan Ayew, Thomas Partey, Mohammed Kudus and Antoine Semenyo opted out of the game as a result of injuries to was clear the team would be presented with an arduous task to beat the home team especially at their favour ground, Boake. A host of people have said that should the aforementioned players had even started the game we would have lost but even so it would have evident that their leadership abilities would have been shown in the game. For a game that, Thomas Asante was leading the lines in the absence of Jordan, the difference was clear as daylight. The latter has his own critics but his leadership in the day speaks volumes despite dividing opinions.
The Midfield void.
Once it was clear that Thomas Partey was never going to make the trip to Boake, it meant that , Caleb Yirenkyi was Ghana’s most capped (15) midfielder ahead of the other midfielders which will see him tasked with the mandate of manning the midfield alongside another player. On the day,he was classless in his passes, interception, tackles, failed to impact ordinarily done alongside his partner, Sibo. They were all over the place, infact the duo were drawn out of position leading to Yalcouyé finding too much space to fly one last the helpless Ati Zigi in post for the Black Sars.
The Blank Attack
The team’s regular attacking quartet was non existent which meant that a new fold of attack was meant to lead the team to victory, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Christopher Bonsu Baah, Ernest Nuamah, and Abdul Fatawu, a quartet of largely inexperienced players who barely had a sniff at goal. It was least surprising that almost the 70th minute mark the team did not even have a shot at goal. Goalkeeper Fofana was on a virtual holiday in the game. There was no clear cutting edge from the boys,it was just nothing positive to write home about.
Lacked of Structure
I watched the entire duration of the game asking myself what the technical team was hoping to achieve with such a spineless team with no structure. Hervé Renard’s Ivory Coast side were solid in all the departments of the game,it spoke volumes of his technical imprint on the game despite a short time with the team. Carlos Queiroz promised Ghana’s they would enjoy the game but similar to other games, the team played with no clear direction and purpose.
The game against The Gambia is a few days ahead and if the team harbours any dreams of sealing qualification for the next AFCON having missed out on the previous one they would have to get their acts together because the performance they put up in Boake is nothing short but dismal.
