Bar two shock results from Saudi Arabia and Japan, the first round of games in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar prior to Ghana’s opening game against Portugal, were largely forgettable. Saudi Arabia going down by a goal in the first half against Argentina made the middle eastern country’s victory over the Lionel Messi-led group the more perplexing.
Eight players in the Japan team ply their trade in the Bundesliga and they made their familiarity with the German style count by delivering an efficient performance to stun a highly regarded rebuilding team. However, every element that makes football such a glorious sport was delivered in the Ghana-Portugal game.
Controversy, brilliant play, goals (five of them in all), fracases between players, mistakes from both sets of players and a handful of football celebrities and legends were produced in abundance. There is a solid argument to be made about the legitimacy of Rafael Leao’s goal (Portugal’s third in all) but the AC Milan forward’s goal was a legit goal.
On the flip side, the penalty on Mohammed Salisu was flat-out wrong, considering the Southampton defender didn’t extend his forearm in his challenge on Ronaldo and won a fair share of the ball to avoid that call being a penalty offence. In the EPL, VAR offside lines are two, a blue one and a red one, with the latter indicating a clear offside infringement.
The Inaki Williams slip, Osman Bukari’s awkward goal celebration and Ronaldo’s historic moment of becoming the first man to score in five different World Cups made this game by far the best in the first round of games played out in Qatar. Looking at what Ghana has delivered in the World Cup since making its debut in 2006, FIFA should just hand out a wildcard to the World Cup to the Black Stars the same way elite players get through the back door to the majors in tennis.
However, this game was won by Portugal and lost by Ghana due to a few minutes of in-game adjustments by Ghana head coach Otto Addo. The young tactician did well to get Ghana to the World Cup on the back of a disastrous campaign at the 2021 AFCON and at the expense of the fancied Nigerians. He did great with his choice of Alidu Seidu as the starting right wing-back, as the young defender excelled on both sides of the field, as did the introduction of Osman Bukari but the Borussia Dortmund trainer missed out on a few details that cost Ghana in the end.
The margins are ultra-fine at this stage of football competition and here are three areas in which Otto Addo missed the mark.
Not making Thomas Partey the midfield pivot
Addo’s 5-4-1 system that had Kudus Mohammed deployed on the right side of the four-man midfield unit made for a poor fit for Kudus, and for a guy like Otto, who thrives on having balance in his team, that was a big miss. However, in the flow of the game, Addo made adjustments and pushed Andre Ayew upfield to pair with Inaki Williams in a 5-3-2 system with Kudus deployed on the left side of the three-man midfield. This sort of role suits Kudus well as his versatile game can fully function in the Mezzala role-playing on the left side in a three-man midfield.
However, Ghana lacked a deep-lying playmaker, as Salis Samed manned the middle with Thomas Partey operating on the right. As solid as Samed was, he isn’t a playmaker and this affected Partey’s performance. The great AC Milan teams of the mid-2000’s used this same three-man midfield with Clarence Seedorf out on the left side with Andrea Pirlo in the middle and Gennaro Gattuso on the right side. Pirlo controlled the game’s pace and started Milan’s attacks while Gattuso provided the steel in the team and Seedorf did Kudus stuff.
Asking a guy with Samed’s skillset to do something similar to what Pirlo did is a tough call and failure to switch Partey to the middle and have a quicker midfielder on the right like an Elisha Owusu is sure to have fixed these issues.
Taking off Mohammed Kudus
The controversial penalty changed a ton of dynamics in what was playing out as a chess match with either team giving very little away as Ghana defended deep and hardly attacked in the first half. Ghana didn’t register a touch in the Portuguese penalty box for 32 minutes and its first touch came from a corner kick in the 34th minute.
Doubling down on the Black Stars’ ultra-defensive game plan in the first half, left wing-back Baba Rahman was the most advanced player for Ghana in the first half with lead man Williams coming in at a very close second.
With Ghana going down by a goal, the Black Stars opened up and attacked more meaning Kudus got the chance to have the ball more and his influence grew in the match. Unsurprisingly, he assisted Dede Ayew to get Ghana’s equalizer and attempted a couple of shots at goal but Otto Addo took him out at the worst time ever.
With Ghana playing more attacking football, the team needed its best ball juggler on the pitch to set speedy winger Bukari up with through balls to run at the Portuguese defense and stretch it further to open up more space.
The fact that in 76 minutes, Kudus recorded the most dribbles by a player in the first round of games, buttresses this point.
Timing of substitutions
Timing is key in all things not just football and the timing of Otto Addo’s substitutions was off and was a throwback to what another young coach did in the English Premier League this season. Arsenal leads the EPL and has lost just a game all season, with that loss coming in a 1-3 result against Manchester United. Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta was largely blamed for that loss after making three substitutions at a go at the time Arsenal trailed 1-2.
The changes rocked Arsenal’s shape and 90 seconds later, Man United scored its third to close out the game, with the Gunners going through the motions of settling into its new shape. Otto’s subs changed Ghana’s system to a 3-4-3 attack-minded formation but had a defensive striker in Jordan Ayew out on the right that made the system an awkward fit and unable to function at its best.
Otto Addo has shown he has the temperament to excel as a coach but growing into that comes with taking some lumps along the way and last night’s display showed that promise and those lumps too.