CHAN 2023: Three things we learned from Madagascar v Ghana encounter

Debutants Madagascar shocked Ghana in the Group C opener of the 2022 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) on Sunday night at Stade Chahid-Hamlaoui!

The Black Galaxies fell 2-1 to the Island nation and would need to beat Sudan convincingly to progress to the quarterfinal because Morocco are out of the competition.

Augustine Randolf’s bad error at the back was clear for everyone to see and could be blamed for the result. Annor Walker’s prompt response to bring in Augustine Agyepong was the right decision. This was clear for everyone to see, but what else did we learn from the game?

Here are the three standouts from the game

Slow start to the game

Slow start to games and competitions, which is part of Ghana’s DNA, manifested in the game. The team lacked cohesion, organization, and everything that will spur them on to play well.

Dennis Korsah was all over the place in the opening 10 minutes, unable to pass and control the ball. Though he later recovered and did creditably well, he should have been one of the bodies leading Ghana to a good start because of his experience with the Black Stars.

The midfielders took too much time to track back, didn’t know who was supposed to be where giving the Malagasy too much time on the ball in the middle.

Madagascar dominated Ghana for pace and utilized the errors Ghana made to win the game.

The slippery pitch

Where did the Black Galaxies perform their pre-game warm-up? Did Annor Walker’s boys not inspect the pitch before kick off? When the game started, the Black Galaxies looked like they had just landed on the pitch from another planet. The first goal of Madagascar came partly because of the slippery nature of the pitch, which Ibrahim Danlad should have been aware if he had taken notice of the pitch during the warm up.

Everyone was slipping until the end of the game.

Finishing is a problem for Ghana

Ghana needs an out and out striker to lead the line, not Barnieh. Daniel Afriyie Barnieh wasn’t effective playing as the target man, there were no supplies going to him. He should have been part of those driving the ball forward as a winger, where he is more effective.

The header Barnieh put wide around 21 minutes, should have been a goal. If that was a Kofi Kordzi on that chance, he would have buried it. In competitions like this, the Barnieh header and the clear chance Razak Yussif fluffed, are not supposed to be because teams don’t win games here many times by wide margins. It’s the small details that win you the game.

Towards the end of the game, where the Black Galaxies queued up to shoot the ball one after the other, surely Barnieh should have tried something different rather than going for power.