Ed Dove looks back over the last 12 months for the national side and remember the highs and the lows since the 2014 World Cup
The Black Stars’ 7-1 demolition of Mauritius brought the curtain down on the 2015-16 season in Ghanaian football.
An argument can certainly be made that it was the most successful season for the national team since the 2009-2010 campaign, which ended (with regret and respect) on the fields of South Africa.
Following the dismay and the shame of the 2014 World Cup—surely one of the ugliest episodes in the Black Stars’ history—nothing could be taken for granted. Considering this inauspicious beginning to the year, the players and the staff deserve great credit for turning things around so successfully, so unforgettably.
Following the defeat to Portugal, which ultimately brought the curtain down on Ghana’s World Cup dreams and the 2013-14 season, the future looked bleak.
Certainly, there had been some encouraging performances in Brazil, and some suggestion that, had the group been slightly easier, had Ghana not made decisive mistakes and crucial moments, it could have been a different story.
However, the bonus scandal, Adam Kwarasey’s dispute with the goalkeeping coach, and the ignominious exile of Kevin-Prince Boateng and The Bull of Brasilia Sulley Muntari meant that heading into the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, there was considerable work to be done.
The silver lining, of course, was that a qualifying pool containing Guinea, Togo and Uganda ought not have posed much problem for a side who had recently drawn 2-2 with soon-to-be world champions Germany.
An opening draw with Uganda somewhat realigned expectations, and underpinned the suggestion that a potential crisis was not too far away.
Despite the alleged errors of the World Cup, Kwesi Appiah kept his job beyond the tournament in Brazil
Qualification was not plain-sailing.
After the first three matches, Ghana had managed only five points, when the target must surely have been nine.
Kwesi Appiah lost his job—months too late, some might say—while Maxwell Konadu took the reins, with suggestion that he was merely a stop-gap to oversee qualification, and a brief whisper that he might be being considered for the top job.
The performances in qualification—not least the defeat to plucky Uganda—were met with a shrug of dissociation among the Ghanaian public.
I remember speaking on Ghanaian radio station Citi FM ahead of this match, where we spoke to fans who revealed a ‘flat’ atmosphere during national team matches and expressed an overall antipathy towards the fates and fortunes of the Black Stars.
Qualification was secured, but Ghana fans were approaching the Afcon like a trip to the dentist, rather than an invitation to the continental carnival of football.
It was in this context that Avram Grant took over at the tail end of 2014. He was a coach with much to prove, taking control of a national side that had lost…or at least was beginning to lose…its way.
I met with some other British journalists in a small London café outside the Equatoguinean embassy near Green Park a week or two before the tournament began.
“How will Ghana do?” they asked.
“I’m worried,” I replied, “there’s work to be done, and Grant hardly has the time to assess his options, to rearrange his pack, to reinstall belief and to find his best approach and personnel.”
Grant | Had it all to do heading into the 2015 Cup of Nations
His task was made harder by the draw, which saw—for the second tournament in a row—the Black Stars placed in the Group of Death.
“Sadly,” I continued, “I’m tipping the Black Stars for an early exit.”
Thankfully, I was proved wrong, although an opening defeat to Senegal—where Ghana looked thoroughly disarrayed in the second half—doubtless convinced one or two others that the national side were headed for a speedy return to Accra.
Often, it is the tiniest moments and the briefest smidgens of fortune upon which the greatest destinies hang.
Having fallen to Senegal, the second group match against Algeria would surely prove to be decisive. Anything other than a win would likely heap intense pressure upon the Black Stars, and in the Fennecs—South Africa’s vanquishers in the opener—they faced one of (if not the) favourites for the title.
The match was a lesson in drudgery.
There was no cohesion, no ambition, no fluency from either side.
Algeria—for reasons that remain a mystery—were completely devoid of the panache and the flair they had demonstrated at the World Cup, while Ghana too appeared chastened after their opening defeat to the Lions of Teranga.
Grant, of course, was still learning on the job and still finding the formula. Speaking to the media, he discussed a focus on the team’s mentality and the desire to see a steady match-on-match improvement (not exactly a soaring ambition after the opener!), but what he needed was clear—a team that knew how to secure six points against Algeria and then South Africa.
He didn’t find it against the Fennecs. The Black Stars laboured unconvincingly and were only saved by a late Asamoah Gyan winner—the kind of tiny moment upon which legacies are built and fates are transformed.
Gyan | A legacy-defining contribution against Algeria
It was only truly in the knockout rounds when Grant found his formula. Daniel Amartey, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Mohammed Awal and Mohammed Rabiu drifted out of the side for various reasons, while Wakaso Mubarak, John Boye, Afriyie Acquah and Kwesi Appiah came in.
The Black Stars had something of an easy run to the final—Guinea and Equatorial Guinea—but after escaping the Group of Death (and, remarkably, topping it) few could begrudge them a place in the final.
Tellingly, the squad progressed as Grant had hoped; the defence grew in stature and resiliency (they conceded only one—Mandla Masango’s stunning effort—in the final five matches of the tournament), while any offensive deficiencies could largely be attributed to Gyan’s rotten luck with illness and injury.
A dull final was lost on penalties, despite victory being tantalisingly close, and while the campaign ultimately ended with bitter disappointment (and a whole bucket’s worth of tears!) Ghana had done well by their compatriots.
They had reinstalled the belief, the pride and the passion for the national team that had been lost during the outrage and the malaise of the previous tenure.
Despite a recent friendly defeat against Senegal, Ghana head into the 2015-16 buoyed with the kind of optimism that hasn’t existed for some time.
The squad is almost unparalleled on the continent, Grant has options across the park, while the emergence of several young players—notably Bernard Mensah—has further raised excitement levels.
There is no more antipathy here!
The year ended with the bout against Mauritius, where the heavy rains across the nation ceased for Ghana to smash the Dodos for seven.
Of course, the turf was sodden, the stands were rain-stained, but at least the ice is slowly melting.