Black Stars problems are psychological – Nyantakyi

President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) Kwasi Nyantakyi says the Black Stars have psychological problems which have prevented the team from winning anything since 1982.

He told reporters that since 2008, a disturbing pattern has emerged which showed that the Black Stars always come unstuck in the fifth game of any tournament.

“For instance, during the 2008 African Nations Cup, we won all our three group games, as well as the quarterfinal. In our fifth game against Cameroon, we lost. Two years later, we played four games and got to the final, which was our fifth game of the tournament, but we lost to Egypt.

“During the World Cup, we qualified for the knock out round after playing three games and we beat USA at the one eighth stages. In our fifth game against Uruguay, we again lost. In 2012, we qualified for the quarterfinals after playing three group games, beat Tunisia in the quarterfinals and again came unstuck in our fifth game against Zambia.

“In this year’s tournament, the same thing happened after we lost our fifth game of the tournament against Burkina Faso. So the team has psychological problems in making it past the fifth match,” the GFA president asserted.

Nyantakyi suggested that this was probably because most of the players get to the fifth game thinking that they are already there.

The GFA president explained that this was the reason why Dwarfs head Coach Professor Mintah has been attached to the team as a means of working on the players’ mindset.

Nyantakyi dismissed suggestions that the relatively huge match bonuses paid to the players is a reason for the many mishaps that occur.