A New year and here came another loss for a Ghanaian national football team to an island African nation. After the Black Stars loss to Comoros in 2022 at the AFCON, the less heralded Black Galaxies pulled off a similar feat in the “smaller” version of the AFCON.
Playing in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) for the first time since 2014, the Black Galaxies dropped a clunker of a performance in the 1-2 loss to Madagascar. The Galaxies couldn’t stay on their feet literally same way it couldn’t stay with the Malagasy tactically in a stuttering performance to open its campaign in Algeria.
Annor Walker rightly identified his team as one that lacked rhythm; part of that was down to Madagascar’s strong high press system. Ghana’s wacky play was partly due to Black Galaxies players lacking composure and rushing every aspect of the game ranging from tackling, passing to controlling the ball.
Morocco’s politically fueled boycott of the competition ought to have boosted Ghana’s chances of progression to the next round since the North African nation won the CHAN in 2018 and 2020. On the other hand, losing to the Malagasy puts Ghana’s qualification in the balance since a win over Sudan on January 19 doesn’t even guarantee the Galaxies a place in the next round.
Sudan could lose via a slim result to Ghana and go ahead to beat Madagascar by a wide goal margin to have a superior goal difference. To grab a big win over Sudan, changes need to be made. As such, these players need to start and play extensive minutes barring injury setbacks:
Kofi Kordzi
The burly Legon Cities presents a different set of skills to the Galaxies setup as his imposing stature gives the team a big target upfront to feed with long direct balls. Against Madagascar, Ghana floated several long balls deep into the half of Madagascar but little came out of these situations despite the credible efforts of the “small” strike pair of Afriyie Barnieh and Abdul Razak Yusif to win headers.
Pairing Kordzi with either Yusif or Barnieh gives Ghana a balanced approach to play route one football with Barnieh or Yusif serving as running outlets to feed off Kordzi’s knockdown headers. After seeing Ghana struggle heavily to play out from the back or play its way through the middle due to Madagascar’s intense press, Sudan is very likely to deploy the same system.
With this in mind, Kordzi should start on Thursday since his presence gives Ghana a viable aerial goal threat, an assist maker and his hold up play after receiving long passes gives enough breathing room to make Ghana’s midfield and back lines comfortable.
Augustine Agyapong
The right back is the obvious name in this list judging by Augustine Randolph’s horror showing against Madagascar. Karela defender Randolph slipped and lost the ball in the lead up to Madagascar’s first goal and his under hit back pass to goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim was intercepted and slotted into the net.
That aside, Randolph looked shaky all game and didn’t offer much width to trouble the Malagasy back line and should make way for Agyapong to slide into Ghana’s starting unit at right full back. Agyapong provided the much needed width for the Black Galaxies, scored a goal and was an all round bright spot in his 27 minute run out.
With Ghana needing a big win to put itself in a strong position to qualify, Agyapong’s enthusiasm, speed and willingness to deliver crosses to feed Kordzi, Augustine Agyapong needs to start against Sudan. That aside, playing the more attack minded Agyapong opposite the more defensive minded Dennis Nkrumah-Korsah provides a balanced tactical outlook for Ghana’s back line.
Seidu Suraj
Suraj needs to start and take up Dominic Nsobila’s place for the Black Galaxies against Sudan to provide balance tactically and enough protection for the back four. Gladson Awako is a major doubt to start due to injury concerns he had lingering before the start of the competition making Nsobila the best candidate to play behind Kordzi and Barnieh.
While keeping David Abagna deep in midfield takes him further away from goal, his ball playing skills and passing range would translate well into a deep lying play maker.
Against Madagascar, Nsobila and Abagna had to restrain themselves from overly committing in attack to maintain the defensive shape of the team.
However, pairing Suraj and Razak Kasim gives Abagna more than enough freedom to join the attack without compromising the team’s shape.
Coach Annor Walker missed a few points with the choice of his personnel in the 4-3-1-2 formation against Madagascar but has the opportunity to right a few wrongs and breathe life into Ghana’s qualification chances