The Black Stars were booted out of the AFCON competition by Comoros
Football is unpredictable because it is beautiful. During the 1982 world cup, Algeria stunned West Germany 2-1, eight years later Cameroon caused a major upset by defeating Maradona led Argentine side 1-0 in Italy, and Senegal also chalked another famous victory over France at Korea/Japan 2002. These Cinderella stories help make the game beautiful.
When C.K.Akonnor left his post as national gaffer last September, the general feeling was that the national team's period of struggle was coming to an end.
Ironically, nothing has changed.
Ghana suffered an embarrassing group-stage exit at the African cup of nations after they were beaten by lowly Comoros. The tiny Islanders have caused a national incident in Ghana!
Black stars were hoping that the date with Comoros would be the spark to reignite a flame. But dreams fell apart, the 3-2 loss was clearly not what GFA hierarchy had in mind, though.
Ghana's football magical production line is endless. From Mohammed Polo, Ibrahim Sunday, Abdul Razak, Adolf Armah, Malik Jabir, Peter Lamptey, Awuley Quaye. Dan Owusu, Kofi Abbrey, Abedi Pele, Anthony Yeboah, Joe Debrah, Shamo Quaye, Joe Carr, Owusu Mensah, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien and many others tell the story better.
What is going wrong and the problems for the technical team to solve are too many.
The team is very sick and requires serious direction. Failed to have their way in games and defensive frailties were exposed in defeats to Algeria and Morocco.
Milovan Rajevac brought in no new plan, retained the personnel that had worked so poorly for Akonnor. Player morale is on the floor, the formation is wrong, sulking stars never adopting to his hazy tactics. The least talked about goalkeeping the better, midfield struggle for consistency as well as deadly attack.
Kurt Okraku says we should name three players who are better than his loved ones. If you had invited these guys: Joseph Addo(Aduana), Afriyie Bernie(Hearts), Abdul Ganiyu(Kotoko), and Alfred Duncan(Fiorentina) maybe the narrative could have been different.
There are more desperate times ahead for the team but it seems no long-term planning is in place off the field.
Right now, the biggest problem facing Ghana football is the lack of good coaches.
As a matter of urgency, GFA should sponsor at least ten local coaches abroad for a period of two years or more. Their return will surely improve the standard of football here.
The hiring of average foreign coaches is killing football in this country. Ghanaian clubs can no longer compete against the best in Africa, no wonder is reflected at the national level.
Unless there is a freak of circumstance, it takes extraordinary players to win tournaments and more of those currently reside both home and abroad not money. Add the loss of that fear factor which means a weak African side faces Ghana with optimism and it means to struggle.