I must say I wasn’t impressed at all by the performance of the Black Star team against Cape Verde on Sunday, January 14, 2024.
In the first place, the defence was hopeless – I couldn’t accept the fact that then coach of such a team was Chris Hughton , the renowned defender who had delighted me many times at White Hart Lane, London, by preventing Spurs from conceding unnecessary goals.
Okay – he only had 10 days to try and inculcate his ideas into a team made up of players with multiple coaches, who would have formed habits based on what their regular coaches had taught them.
But “defence” is defence, and you cannot reckon yourself a defender when you keep moving backwards when an attacking opponent is preparing himself to shoot. You move forcibly towards him, so that even if you are unable to stop him totally, you reduce the space between himself and the ball, forcing him to shoot too early, or too late. Best of all, your aggressive presence can make his shot erratic. All this while, you would have been guarding yourself against committing a foul. That’s football played with BRAINS.
And COURAGE! As a defender, if you leave your courage at your clubhouse while coming to play for your country, you might as well not accept the invitation to play. You see, when you play for your nation, you will be judged not only by football experts. Amateur coaches of all types would be watching you! And they will impute all sorts of motives to you, even if the mistakes you make are common ones. As Chris Houghton told newsmen after the match, the coaches can institute a “system” of play for the team. But it’s left to individual players to play their part in making the “system” work. And individuals can always be trusted to behave in unexpected ways. Such as producing a crappy defence when your coach happens to be one of the best defenders ever to have graced a football pitch.
Well, we have Egypt next on our plate. All I can say is that I hope our guys don’t go and present a defence of the sort they put up against Cape Verde when they meet Mohammed Salah and his Pharaonic warriors. Indeed, the least said about that the better. So I’ll leave you well alone to try and enjoy the tournament!
BY CAMERON DUODU
