Ghana coach coach Avram Grant has given a high rating to the positive mentality of the Black Stars during the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea as his unfancied side finished second in the competition.
Ghana lost the finals to Cote d’Ivoire on penalties but Grant has said he was happy with how the players found ways to push themselves from the group stages to the end of the tournament even when expectations from fans were low.
"I must say that the players in the tournament showed a very strong mentality. They recovered from the first match and even managed to find a win late in the match against South Africa. They won the quarter and semi-finals easily,” Grant said in an interview before leaving Accra for a 10-day break.
"I had not seen any team win such matches by 3-0 scorelines. Even in the final, they were the better team. Of course, things must improve but they showed a lot of their fighting spirit and good football.
The Israeli said he was happy to have learned a lot in the initial stages of his career with the Black Stars and he revealed how he took decisions on the team with barely six weeks to the start of the 2015 AFCON.
I decided to be fair to the players when I was putting the team together. A lot of people said I had to come out with a lot of names from which I would choose but I preferred watching DVDs and going to see players in action.
However, I could not see a lot of them in action but I scouted Daniel Amartey and John Boye. Boye played only 15 minutes of the match I saw. Many players in the team were not playing for their teams.
"But I am happy with the decisions I made because at the end of the day, they fell in line with the three things I had mind. I looked out for quality, the base of the player’s mental strength on which we can build something and how selfless the player is and how willing he is to fight for the team."
Grant stated he would travel to see the national U20 team , the Black Satellites, at the African Youth Championships in Senegal in March and not down a few players for possible entry to the Black Stars.