Coaching is such a brutal sport because individuals who fill such slots are super dependent on athletes going out on the field, court, rink or whatever surface you can think of that sports competition takes place on and to deliver results.
To highlight the high level of vulnerability, a coach could have the perfect game plan but end up losing a game because a player failed to execute his role or in some disappointing cases, decided to throw away the game plan by attracting a stupid red card to jeopardize the entire operation.
As such, Carlos Queiroz won’t get the kind of commendation he truly deserves after guiding Ghana to a win and two draws in three games including the Black Stars two games played so far at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Those games against Panama and England have yielded brilliant defensive results particularly in that goalless draw against the Three Lions despite picking up the team’s head coaching role in March and playing just one friendly 1-1 draw with Wales prior to the World Cup.
Beyond the results, what has enamored Queiroz to many a Ghanaian football fan is down to two things; a clear game plan and the level of preparation that has made the game plan work thus far which is a marked departure from what life was like under immediate past head coach Otto Addo.
Ghana has a clear structure which is defense first and has prepared well to execute it hence Brandon Thomas-Asante’s confession that the sequence that led to Ghana’s winner against Panama had been rehearsed in training multiple times; so yes Carlos Queiroz deserves more plaudits than the impressions his viral Kakalika dance moves on social media polled. Speaking of plaudits, it looks like there is a serious issue in connection to awarding the Man (Superior Player of the Match Award for Ghana games at the World Cup.
After all, Antoine Semenyo oddly picked up the award after Ghana’s 1-0 win over Panama while Jude Bellingham of all players scooped up the award and on both occasions, the winners were surprise picks. The Man of the Match winners were so surprising even Bellingham stated that he didn’t deserve to win the award. (Click highlighted text to watch video)
Looking beyond the past and into the future, Ghana’s upcoming game against Croatia is set to mark the Black Stars’ qualification into the knockout phase of the tournament for the first time since the 2010 World Cup. Racking up four points with a healthy goal difference puts Ghana in a very good spot to progress from Group L and having surmounted the challenges of a pesky Panama side while delivering a defensive master class against England, it is time to give standout players of the Black Stars their flowers ahead of the Croat challenge this weekend.
Before the list of awardees is delivered in this write up, it is imperative to highlight notable players who are worthy candidates with Thomas Partey leading the way. Despite excelling in his return to the team after missing the Panama game due to a visa challenge, Partey excelled against England by showing off his versatility as a throwback defensive midfielder who disrupted England’s build ups, a distributor of passes during Ghana’s scanty passing phases in the game and a make shift centre back who tracked Harry Kane’s runs into the penalty box.
However, playing just a game, as brilliant as he was in that game, isn’t enough to get on this list. Ghana’s favourite son Benjamin Asare falls in this category as well since he hasn’t been tested enough (aside a very good stop on Bukayo Saka’s curled shot) to make it into yours truly’s top three performers for the Black Stars thus far.
- Gideon Mensah and Marvin Senaya
Ghana’s starting full backs are practically inseparable with both playing a huge role in Ghana not conceding a goal so far in the World Cup especially considering that in both games, Ghana was under significant pressure in the wing areas. Panama attacked mainly through its wingbacks in Amir Murillo and Cesar Blackman while Ghana played with a very low block that was narrow against England.
By restricting the space in the middle, Ghana conceded a ton of space in the wing areas England used to create overloads as its best means to get behind the Ghanaian defense. Often, particularly in the first half, Gideon Mensah was left on an island to handle Reece James and Noni Madueke and later Saka while Senaya did same against Djed Spence and Anthony Gordon and later Marcus Rashford. England’s failure to score was largely down to a lack of production from the wing areas leading many to slam Gordon and Madueke’s performances.
A part of England’s frustrations was down to the top performance from Gideon Mensah and Marvin Senaya and both those lads deserve far more credit than they have had. For context sake, against Panama, Senaya and Mensah had a 7.1 rating according to statistical football platform Sofascore. It was pretty much the same against England when Senaya scored a rating of 7.3 in 87 minutes while Mensah scored a 7.6 rating after playing out the entire duration of the game.
- Jerome Opoku
The towering figure (6 foot 5 inches) of Opoku has been a constant sight as Ghana has leaned in on its defense to pick up points in the campaign. The England born centre back has grown into a dependable force by getting heavily involved in aerial duels and wiping off any spillages in defense for Ghana while scoring ratings of 7.3 and 7.5 against Panama and England respectively.
His leadership is equally commendable as the Turkey based player is often spotted using hand signs to point out the spot for setting the offside line. Vocal in communication, top level organisation and overall top production in a controlled fashion deserves a high mark and Opoku gets it in second place.
- Jonas Adjetey
The Wolfsburg defender follows his centre back partner Jerome Opoku for the third spot in this list while fending off a serious challenge from Caleb Yirenkyi and he beat Yirenkyi to this spot largely due to his handling of expectations. Adjetey was blasted after poor showings in friendlies against Austria and Germany then turned it around with a better performance against Wales.
The high expectations were in place heading into the Panama game and he delivered by scoring a 7.3 rating while acting as Ghana’s de facto offensive threat with his powerful headers threatening Haiti’s goal on a couple of occasions. While producing to a lesser extent against England largely due to Partey’s brilliance as a sweeper, Adjetey delivered a strong but not brilliant performance as shown in his 6.8 rating.
- Caleb Yirenkyi
His young age (20) belies the sort of maturity the FC Nordsjaelland player plays with and it is because of this matured way of understanding and approaching the game that has made Yirenkyi one of Ghana’s best players at this World Cup.
Picking between Adjetey and Yirenkyi was tough and Yirenkyi missed out on a top three spot because he couldn’t quite match the level of performance delivered against Panama as he did against England which was reflective of his 7.8 rating against Panama and his 6.3 rating against England.
