Let’s Route for Akwasi Appiah and the Black Stars

Whilst purporting to be congratulating the Black Stars in their feat in qualifying for the third consecutive time for the World Cup, some pundits and sports writers / journalists have either deliberately or inadvertently sought to undermine the significant and historic role of the Head Coach, Akwasi Appiah. It is true that both he and the GFA on the one hand; and a group of recalcitrant players on the other, made mistakes leading up to the South Africa Games. They succeeded in creating disharmony in the team through exclusion of certain players which in my view affected team morale and ultimately our performance in which I believe the presence of certain players would have made a difference in crucial matches when it mattered the most.

The new Head Coach, Akwasi Appiah’s (and GFA's) argument at the time was that it was a matter of DISCIPLINE which one must always applaud for after all, if your team is full of self-appointed "Galacticos" who think they are individually more important than the collective, then you have no team and will win nothing!!! We have seen this with big teams in Europe for instance who have 'big name' stars on huge salaries but who simply cannot gel together to play for each other and win things. Notable exceptions and why they are so successful include Barcelona FC where you have some of the greatest stars of all time but where team spirit and the collective is the key to their record-breaking successes year after year.

Akwasi Appiah's intentions were not very clear at the time of the impasse and this was interpreted differently by different people, which was rather unfortunate. At the time, I personally felt he had been unwise in some of his decisions and had overreacted to situations. Anyhow, though in my view Ghana should have at least got to the Finals in South Africa, that is not the end of the world and he can be forgiven for his mistakes so early in his career as Head Coach. I believe he has learned a lot from that experience, and has matured in his role as head coach. It is also pleasing to see the lessons learned by those same players, their written apologies and ‘reversal’ of their intentions to quit international football and one might add, the significant roles of certain key individuals, not least the Asantehene, in admonishing the players and helping to bring harmony back to the team. This is what ONE NATION nationalism is all about.

On the part of the Head Coach, more important is the fact that he has managed to get the team back together again and they seem to enjoy playing together, for each other and above all for their country, Ghana. In this team I see a spine of good leaders, skilled professionals and a steely determination. They are difficult to break down and this was displayed in Cairo despite the 2:1 defeat by the Pharoahs.

It is only those who do not understand the technical aspects of the game of football or those who only analyse football with their own emotions who would condemn the display of the Black Stars in the recent defeat in Cairo. That was a difficult match against a team which was not only playing for their national pride, but which until they met their shocking (and perhaps their worst ever) defeat in Kumasi under Akwasi Appiah's technical leadership of the Black Stars, were still hoping-against-hope that they could beat Ghana to qualify.

The Pharoahs put EVERYHTING into that match and although the referee was not helpful to our players, this was a very tough match for which the Black Stars had to dig deep, avoid complacency, approach defensively whilst looking for opportunities for a counter-attack. In my view the Stars frustrated the Egyptians, and held them for a very long time and in many spells despite the ball being in their half most of the time. It reminded me of Arsenal's recent 1-0 defeat of Borussia Dortmund (who had beaten them earlier at home at the Emirates Stadium in London) Away in Dortmund against the odds in the European Champions League. For most of the game the ball was in Arsenal's half but they dug deep and held on to win after their early goal.

I believe the Pharoahs might have won heavily against a lesser team, and it was also pleasing to see the Stars score against the Pharoahs who until we demolished them in Kumasi, apparently hadn't been conceding in the qualifiers!!! That Kevin Prince Boateng got the all-important goal that finally brought reality to bear on the Pharoahs was also pleasing, especially after the condemnation he has also received recently at the hands of some so-called pundits and arm-chair critics claiming to be working in Football Administration.

Why can't we find positive things to say about our heroes and people in authority who are doing a great job? Many are the pundits who came on this very forum and wrote disparaging articles about Akwasi Appiah's credentials and his ability as a coach and doubted if he would get Ghana to qualify. I note that some of them started to eat humble pie after the heavy defeat of Egypt in the first leg and are now converted.

What worries me about this myopic approach to doing things is that most of the time those writing such rubbish are themselves not accomplished in anything, let alone in football management or even as professional players. Even the journalism that they claim to belong to, they have nothing remarkable about their writings or their views as pundits and display a lot of ignorance and lack of insight into the game when they seek to provide 'expert opinions'.

There is always a danger of pundits joining the 'Club' of half-baked football pundits and writers. My advice to you is, desist from it. By all means suggest ways in which we can do better and give good advice.

At the World Cup in Brazil, everyone of the 32 (plus) nations represented there would have earned the right to be there and each one is already a success, to make it out of the entire family of nations around the world!!!

Ghana has a team with a broad range of skills, technical abilities, experience and leadership including quite a number being leaders at club level in Europe for example. They play with, against and have team mates from some of the great footballing nations. If these Ghanaian players can compete with these players at this level and can even lead them as Captains in those teams, who are you and I to doubt that they can win the World Cup? Surely they must command the respect of the other teams and individuals because they already know them and their stature. But for the infamous Suarez' unsportsmanlike CHEATING incident which denied Ghana a place at the Semi-Finals (and who knows what might have happened against Holland after what we did to Germany) incident at the last World Cup, we could have gone a step further and perhaps even gone on to win the cup especially with all the global support Ghana enjoyed at the event. In fact, Ghana was other people's favourite team and to this day, people talk about it when you travel around.

So, my advice to all is, let us come up with sensible and good ideas for the team, advice and in my view above all else encourage bonding, team building and self-belief and THINKING GHANA (and Africa) and not themselves. Let us encourage the coach whilst cautioning against complacency, and let us all route for Ghana for Brazil 2014.