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Sports Features of Sunday, 5 January 2014

Source: Ikleel Yussif

Ghana must progress to the knockout stage.

Every soccer loving fan speaks with confident concerning the progress of Ghana in the group G, to the next stage, the group many described as the group of death, with some believing that Ghana will lift the trophy come what may. It would be a good news if such wishes could come through. Some, on hearing the name christiano Ronaldo, Germany begin to fear that, Ghana has got no chance no matter how other people try to convince them. There has been a mixed feeling here among the soccer loving fans.
There is the adage that goes like this, by the time a blind will issue a warning of throwing a stone at someone, his leg might have been on the stone already. Now which stone is Ghana's leg on of which every other Ghanaian will open his mouth and then claim Ghana will go pass Portugal and USA. Is it just the fact that Ghana has thrashed Egypt 6-1 and went ahead to loose narrowly to the Faroahs in their own game. It was very nice the way Ghana went about it but it has got nothing to do with the world cup itself.
Most of the fans are of the view that, The kind of players we have is enough to take us to the final. It is very important sometimes to be fair in our analysis and that can lead to our technical team, the FA all help to come up with a strategy that can help get Ghana beating USA again and at least settle on a draw with Portugal but not just flexing our arms and muscles and then say, we will beat Portugal, beat USA and therefore progress to the Nock out stage.
THE TEAM.
Indeed, Ghana has got the quality of players to be able to stand the test, but what one would be asking is, is the team balanced with regards to defenders, Midfielders, and the forward liners(strikers).
With the inclusion of the German born, kelvin PB, we can boost a little bit of our striking powers as we cannot rely on only A Gyan coupled with kind of defenders Ghana is going to play against.
The Black stars is far more rich in midfielders , right from M Essien, S.A.Muntari , Agyemang Badu, the juventus star Kwedwo Asamoah, Rabiu, Adomah and others made Ghanaians believed Black stars have got the best team but when we take a look at our left and right fullbacks, we see that, the available players are minors as compare to the kind of wingers and even Strikers they are to face, it means the coach has got a lot more to think off than to just say we pray our players would be in form.
Using the Standard liege star Danniel Opare and the Esparance right full Back is not an option but looking at the threat C Ronaldo, Nani and other players of Portugal who can also score can cause, not forgetting the danger, the inform Germany can also cause, the team that is full with the players of the current champions league winners which to me is the favorite to the world cup not only the group of death.
Looking at Guardiola and other coaches like Jose Moreno, we see that sometimes they use midfielders in full backs and central defense and succeed. Micheal Essien, Mascarano, the former Liverpool player and now Barcelona, are typical example of this, so instead of the coach resting the likes of Agyemang Badu, Kwedwo Asamoah to come as subtitutes to replace a player like Sule Muntari who can at any time score to make the difference . It would be fine idea to try some of the midfielders in the left and right full backs in the coming friendly matches and see how far he can succeed in that strategy. Now almost every country in the world boost of the few quality players they have and say they can cause upset in the game when they get the chance but it is the one with good strategies that can do it and do it well.
It is said that, once you think you can do it, then you can do it
So the coach has been very confident he can deliver means he can do it even if he lacks ideas, his ability to keep on thinking, listening to other opinions can help him do it.
To use an old fashion but powerful phrase, dare to succeed in whatever you want to do and can succeed, believe and never stop believing that, the tide always comes back, the glory of your playing days is gone, A. Appiah, you are yet to make a history as a coach, get the courage and do not forget prayers, it releases power.
Ikleel Yussif
Tantawayussif@gmail.com