FINALLY, Black Stars’ coach, Goran Stevanovic, has named a 23-man squad for the African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea-Gabon, which kick-off on Saturday, January 21, 2012.
OUT of the provisional team of 25 players that is currently on training in South Africa, two were dropped in order to meet the stipulated number as required by the Confederation of African Football. The two players are Derek Asamoah, who plays in the Korean league and local player, Emmanuel Baffour of New Edubiase.
AS usual, almost all 24-million-plus Ghanaians are offering varied interpretations of coach Stevanovic’s final squad with a lot of concerns being expressed on the attacking options chosen by the Serbian trainer. Again the defensive stead of the coach’s selection has also come under intense scrutiny with perhaps the best department where many Ghanaians seem to agree with the coach being the midfield.
WE are not privy to the reason(s) why the two players were dropped, because the Black Stars camp is now temporarily barred off to journalists. Thus information either comes in patchy or solely on speculation. That notwithstanding, we believe that the attacking option available to the Stars team currently looks very lethargic as compared to that of the competing countries, such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
WHILE Ivory Coast and Senegal go into the tournament with four or more world class strikers, the Black Stars coach has selected what many consider as limping, attacking machinery that we believe, cannot deliver the country’s 5th African Cup dream.
WITH the Ivorian team pregnant with deadly and in-form strikers, such as Didier Drogba, Seidu Doumbia, Kader Keita and Gervinho; Senegal is spoilt for choice with some leading European club players on parade. These are Papis Cisse of Bundesliga side, Freiburg; Demba Ba of New Castle United in the English Premier League; Musa Sow of Lille, and; good old Mahmoudou Niang of Turkish first division side, Fernabache.
GHANA, on the other hand, is relying on a half-fit Asamoah Gyan who plies his trade in the less glamorous Qatar league, and Prince Tagoe who is struggling to find his feet in a newly promoted Turkish club side. He has made only one second half appearance in all matches played by his team during the first half of the European league and has been a total liability for the Black Stars for the last four years.
ALTHOUGH he has shown a lot of promise in the Marseille side this season, Today still believes Jordan Ayew is still leaning on the ropes and his inclusion in the Stars team should have been one of the exceptions in global football where budding gems are usually sent to big stage tournaments for them to have a taste of it and not necessarily as one of the main attacking options in the team.
THE selection of the team’s defensive players, we on this paper think, is also not the best. Most of the players are either not first team players in their respective European clubs or are just returning from injury. Team captain, John Mensah, has played just one match in all matches played by his club-Olympique Lyonniase this season due to injuries. Faced with the same conditions, Sunderland coach, Steve Bruce, was compelled to rescind his decision to sign the Ghanaian strongman on permanent basis.
ASIDE from the fact that young defender, Jonathan Mensah, is struggling for a first team place for his French side, Evian Tonon Gilliard, he is just returning from a long lay-off due to injuries and that does not help his match fitness and sharpness. Another player who is suffering from a long lay-off is John Boye.
OBVIOUSLY, these are some of the defects that we have detected in the Black Stars team. But that, in our opinion, does not in any way suggest that the Black Stars would be going to the tournament as a minnow side. They should be guided by their 2010 feat where they went to Angolan 2010 African Cup of Nations with most of the top players injured before that tournament, but managed to reach the final of finals. Hopefully, Black Stars would do better than that in Equatorial Guinea-Gabon.