It was a very tough battle, between two countries whose rivalry extends far beyond the football field, but in the end Ghana were the first semi-finalists of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, and deservedly so. The Black Stars went through a plethora of emotions throughout tonight’s game: they stepped onto the field with half the team in non-ideal physical shape (a light injury here, a few cramps there), they were forced to concede the first goal of the match against the run of play, and after they valiantly tied the game they were forced to play for over 30 minutes with one man down (John Mensah got sent off for a last-man foul on Peter Odemwingie).
Despite all these events, Ghana relentlessly continued to play their game: short passing, strong support of the midfielders to the striking duo (when you have finishers like Gyan Asamoah and Manuel Agogo you need any help you can get), and frequent pushes down the wings by Quincy Owusu-Abeyie and Sulley Muntari. In the end, the team managed by Claude Le Roy emerged as winners with a goal in the final minutes, against a Nigerian team which will probably have a lot of regrets in the coming week, especially for not trying harder during their numerical advantage. At the end of the day: Ghana are through to the Semi-Finals, Nigeria out of the African Cup.
Right from the beginning, Super Eagles’ coach Berti Vogts (the very same who won the 1974 World Cup as a player, and Euro 1996 as a manager) decided to field a fairly conservative formation: a 4-3-3 line-up which (on paper) may have looked focused on attacking, but which in actuality heavily relied on the defensive work of Peter Odemwingie and Ikechukwu Uche (the Nigerian wingers on duty today) to give a hand to the 3-man midfield (formed by Dickson Etuhu and George Olofinjana, defensive mids in support of John Obi Mikel).
In counterpart, the choice of leaving Aiyegbeni Yakubu all alone as the central striker proved to be a fairly effective tactic, because the Super Eagles forward was a big thorn in the backside of Eric Addo and John Mensah (the two Ghana center-backs) for the entire match. It should come as fairly little surprise therefore, to see that the first goal of the game came from a penalty kick, provoked by the very same Yakubu as he was brought down in the box by… you’ve guessed it, Eric Addo, all this in minute 35. The Everton striker transformed his own spot-shot into the bottom-left corner, despite Richard Kingson going the right way. 1-0 Nigeria.
Ghana thus found themselves trailing on the scoreline, for the first time in the entire tournament, despite clearly dominating the first period of the match (a Gyan post in minute 23, and a Gyan backheel flick for Agogo, neutralized into corner, come to mind). Nevertheless, Claude Le Roy’s team didn’t give in and managed to obtain the equalizer with the last move of the first period: Owusu-Abeyie’s cross from the left was met with a glancing header by Michael Essien and the ball went in off the left post, trickling along the goal line before going in. 1-1, in the 2nd minute of stoppage time.
After the break, the Nigerian team came back on the grass with the clear intention of quickly regaining their lead. Odemwingie was multiplying his fast runs forward, often putting the Ghanaian defense under pressure, and a 35m-lob by Ikechukwu Uche (after the keeper had come out of the box to challenge an aerial pass with his head) almost entered into the net, Kingson only managing to tip it over the bar with a quick back-pedalling motion.
In minute 60, it seemed as it was curtains down for Ghana when Odemwingie epxloited yet another pass through, and on a two-on-one situation (with Yakubu supporting) was brought down on the edge of the box by Black Stars captain Mensah. Obvious red card, promptly displayed by the Algerian referee of the match, Ghana down to 10 men, and Nigeria with a dangerous free-kick opportunity for cannonball specialist Taye Taiwo. The ensuing set-piece turned out to be a real heart-pounder for the local team, because there wasn’t one, there weren’t two, there were THREE shots in quick succession (respectively by Taiwo, Shittu, and Mikel) which the Ghanaian keeper and defense somehow managed to keep away from the net.
With one man down, Claude Le Roy decided to take one of his strikers (if we may call them that) off, and put on a right midfielder. Essien, much like he has done for Chelsea these past years (and remembering that was his original role at Bastia when he first started) reverted back to a central defender position. Vogts on the other hand, did not make use of the extra man advantage to insert a few additional offensive players, and instead let his team continue unchanged.
In the end, that probably must have been the German coach’s biggest mistake of the match, one the Nigerian press are surely going to pin on Vogts’ back with a big rusty nail and a fat heavy hammer. Effectively, this no-action attitude allowed the Black Stars to progressively get back into the game and not lose confidence, all the way up to minute 82: out on the left wing, Haminu Dramani spotted Muntari in the box, and the ex-Udinese midfielder slammed a hard cross onto the 2nd post for the Agogo tap-in. 2-1 Ghana with one man down!
The final 10 minutes were going to be a mix of reckless showboating (Laryea Kingston and Haminu Dramani doing all kinds of unnecessary flicks and stepovers, to taunt their opponents and waste time) to last-gasp defensive clearances (Muntari and Kingson first on the list). In the end however, Ghana held on tight for the final 2-1 scoreline, and the country 2nd ever victory on the Super Eagles at the African Cup of Nations. The Black Stars’ next match is scheduled for Thursday, when they’ll be playing the winner of the Tunisia-Cameroon match.
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2-1 [Match Highlights] |
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| GOALSCORERS: 34’ pen. Yakubu (N), 45’ Essien (G), 82’ Agogo (G) | ||
| GHANA (4-4-2): Kingson – Sarpei, Pantsil, Mensah, E.Addo – Owusu-Abeyie (74’ Dramani), Annan, Essien, Muntari – Agogo, Gyan (63’ Kingston). Coach. Le Roy. | ||
| NIGERIA (4-3-3): Ejide – Nwaneri, Yobo, Shittu, Taiwo – Etuhu (71’ Eromoigbe), Mikel (85 Obinna), Olofinjana – Uche, Yakubu, Odemwingie. Coach: Vogts. |
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Posted in African Cup of Nations, World News |
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Wow what a game… I can’t believe we actually won it. After Mensah got sent off I was about to start crying.
GO BLACK STARS!!
With one man down, Claude Le Roy decided to take one of his strikers (if we may call them that) off, and put on a right midfielder. -WHAT DO U MEAN BY “IF WE MAY CALL THEM THAT”.BETWEEN THEM GHANA HAS GOT THREE GOALS SO IT IS VERY MYOPIC INFANTILE AND INSULTING TO PASS SUCH A REMARK.LEARN TO USE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE APPROPRIATELY.
Ghanaba – you need to calm down. Marco’s remark was by no means despective, he was merely suggesting that Gyan is not an orthdox striker, but more a forward player. No-one is questioning his credentials as a footballer.
Actually Hugo, what I was suggesting is that their goalscoring potential leaves a lot to be desired. That has been a problem of Ghanaian strikers for ages, and mentioning it is by no way insulting, it’s simply a statement of fact. I have plenty of Ghanaian friends here who will tell you the same.
In fact (although that is really going to extremes), Asamoah Gyan has even received death treaths during the competition because of missed scoring chances. You can find websites documenting the story pretty much everywhere (here are some: BBC and TheOffside.com).
Mind you, I’m not saying that Gyan and Agogo are bad players. They’re actually quite skilled, and Gyan has been doing fairly well at Udinese this year. But when it comes to putting the ball in the net, this Ghana team has traditionally always relied on midfielders to do the job.
I GET YOUR POINT MAYBE I WAS TOO PASSIONATE DUE TO ENCOUNTERS I HAVE HAD DISCUSSING THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE.I TEND TO DISAGREE WITH PEOPLE WHO SAY THIS BLACKSTARS ARE WASTEFUL IN FRONT OF GOAL.YOU MIGHT SAY THEY RELY ON THEIR MIDFIELDERS BUT ARE YOU ALSO VIEWING IT FROM THE POINT THAT THEY CREATE CHANCES FOR THE MIDFIELDERS WHO ARE ALSO GOOD GOAL POACHERS.WHEN YOU FOLLOW OUR WORLD CUP QUALIFICATION WHICH PEOPLE UNDERPLAYED INITIALLY THE TEAM WAS AN ALL SCORING TEAM
AND ASAMOAH GYAN WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCORERS ESPECCIALLY IN THE GAME AGAINST THE CONGO AT THEIR OWN BACKYARD WHERE HE PLAYED ALONE UPFRONT.COMPARE HIM TO ANY AFRICAN STRIKER OF TODAY AT THAT AGE IF THEY HAD SUCH HUGE RESPONSIBLITIES OF CARRYING THE WHOLE NATIONAL TEAM’S STRIKING ROLE.EVEN ETO HAD THE MBOMA’S TO LEARN AND PARTNER SO THE PRESSURE WAS LESS.FOR ME IF A PLAYER HAS APPEARED IN ABT 28 MATCHES AND HAS ABT 16 GOALS FOR HIS NATIONAL TEAM IT DOES REALLY MAKE HIM A GOOD STIKER MAYBE NOT GREAT YET.AND THAT IS WHY I REALLY DISAGREE WITH YOU.YOUR FRIENDS YOU CLAIM ARE GHANAIANS TELL THEM TO GET ON THIS SITE AND I’LL DEBATE.I HAVE REALLY WON THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS BCOS I BELEIEVED IN THIS TEAM FROM DAY ONE AND I PLACED MY BET ON THEM WITH MA COLLEAGUES(GHANAIANS) WHO THOUGHT WE COULD NOT REACH ANYWHERE.AS FOR BBC AND THE OTHER FOREIGN I TAKE THEIR ANALYSIS WITH A PINCH OF SALT.
FOD FOR THOUGHT:WHO IS THE LEADING GOALSCORER IN MAN UTD.DOES THAT MAKE TEVEZ AND ROONEY IMPOTENT STRIKERS?
Ghanaba – if you look at such websites as Red Rants, you will find this very debate regarding striking productivity illuminated through the lens of Rooney fans and detractors. Some argue that Rooney’s link-up play and assist rate (down on last year, I think) makes up for his current goal drought, whilst others believe that his team efforts more than compensate the paucity of balls put into the net.
For my money, Gyan is not a traditional number 9 and should be commended for his ball skills, even if he could stand to improve his finishing a tad.
Sorry for putting words in your mouth, Marco – I didn’t find the point clear. But no, you shouldn’t have to apologise for your opinion, since it is football-based and a reasonable one at that.
Sorry, I meant that some pardon Rooney’s lack of goals, and others argue that he is simply not doing enough as a striker and should therefore be dropped. I am in the former camp.
Marco your comments were harsh and I can see why people were offended. People tend to forget that Gyan is 22. He was basically an U23 striker promoted early to the Black Stars because of beefs with the more senior strikers. With 16 goals in 28 caps he has done well.
I don’t know the stats on Agogo but from memory he has something like 10 caps and 8 goals? These stats are much better than players like Gilardino or Iaquinta. Admitted Gyan isn’t as deadly as Drogba or Eto’o but then again nobody in the world is better than those 2. Most importantly Gyan and Agogo both provide some much needed physical presence upfront considering Ghana is leightweight team compared to our fellow Africans. Even I was shocked to see Agogo being dwarfed by the Nigerian defenders.
The fanatics in Ghana who boo Gyan, are all really pissed that their favourite local legends didn’t get called up.. Joe Tex, Armando etc..
Ahah that’s not what I call backing me up Will, but point taken
I’ve been too harsh on Agogo & Gyan perhaps, and I guess what I wrote was more a provocative comment than anything else.
My point on Ghanaian strikers in general remains however. They certainly weren’t the Black Stars’ strongest point in the 2006 World Cup, and they still aren’t now. What makes Ghana a strong team in my opinion is their teamwork and the individual skills of their midfielders, but what do I know?
Oh by the way Will, you cited Gilardino and Iaquinta but they aren’t regular starters in the Azzurri (unlike Gyan and Agogo are for Ghana).
A more appropriate comparison would be with Toni, but I don’t think you’d be ready to debate Luca’s goalscoring productivity these past years, would you? :p