Sports
Every word from Otto Addo’s post-Angola press conference
There was plenty to discuss in Otto Addo’s post-match press conference on Thursday. The discussion was dominated by factors that led to the loss to Angola, missed chances and the quality of the Baba Yara pitch.
The boss was also asked about the game in general, lessons learnt from the game, and plan for the remaining matches. Here is a full transcript…………….
On his thoughts on the game
First of all congratulations to Angola – they did well, they changed the tactical formations. We saw it before the game, they started with three central defenders so we knew they will play differently. They took a high risk pressing us very, very higher. I think you could see that their energy in the first half, they lost a little bit of power. We still created chances because they played in the last line – one against one. Sometimes it was just one against one defender, sometimes it was Antoine, Jordan, and Fataw, three against three and yeah, surely there we could have done more. In the second half, I think we took control. We controlled the game, we created a lot of chances, or even half chances where I think we have to try and take faster decisions to shoot earlier a little bit. I like that they play like a team, but sometimes a little bit more egoistic in shooting will be good. The goalkeeper did well. Congratulations to the goalkeeper, he saved some really good goals and at the end, I mean at least, I think we deserve the point at least. It was a little bit unlucky and yeah, you can just hope that I don’t like to do this, but on this pitch, to be honest, the guys did really well. In a second half, to control the game, they did it. You have to work on the pitch to get better, because it’s very difficult. And then mistakes can happen.
On losing at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium for the first time in 24 years
I does not feel good.
On lesson from defeat
Surely, we have to be more clinical. I saw a lot of situations where we could have shot earlier, we should have been a little bit more egoistic. Even though I don’t like if a player has a better position and you don’t give him the ball, I don’t like it. But this game, I think there was a lot of situations where we could have taken shots and we passed to the next one, passed to the next one. Also, I think the players that did that all, they tried everything, we control the match and this is also football. I was a player myself. I had bad games when we won and sometimes you play good and you lose. This is football.
On late changes
I know that if I would have changed earlier, people would have said, why did you change. Whatever you do, I know when you lose, you’re the bad guy. But I take it. After the game, everybody knows more and maybe we could have done better in changing. I’ll think about it I’ll take it home and think about it but like I said the second half to be honest was really, really good. We had the right positions. In the first half we had some problems, I talked with Alidu Seidu, he was too high so he had to come back. We took better positions in between the lines and the player played well. We break them down to the half and we didn’t allow too many counter situations even though there were some which were also dangerous and yeah, like I said, football is sometimes like that. We were lucky maybe a little bit even though we deserved to win in Mali. But there we scored a goal and won and today Angola scored a goal. Bit I can just repeat myself, I think at least a draw would have been deserved.
Problems in the heart of defense and midfield
No, because the quality is there. I think even though we lost I saw that the quality is there, Mumin was unlucky that he couldn’t clear the ball at the end but he made some mistakes before so it’s not only him. The grass is also not that good but besides that he made a really, really good game and sent a lot of good balls in between the line, won a lot of duels so you know they’re young boys and I know they will develop and surely we will have to learn all of this to be more clinical and at least to get a point at least out of this match.
On the pitch
Bumpy, the height and all wasn’t good enough
Absence of key players in Central defense and its effect
Do you think you have a major problem in defence. But surely we lost today 1-0. And we have to look also not only at the goal but also on the chances we allowed. But I said it I think the last time against the Central African Republic. It depends on the start and the back line. Sometimes it’s more also the midfield, sometimes it’s the front, the way we are pressed, the way we attack, we don’t have to allow them to play clear balls into the last line and we have to avoid these situations where they have a one-on-one situation at the box and so we have to be more compact, we have to work on that I know it was not easy, the players all played in Europe mostly and we’re tired but the same for Angola and today I think they were lucky at the end but yeah like I said we have to learn out of it there’s a lot of things to learn in a lot of situation and just to be clear I don’t want to blame this loss on the pitch even though it was not good but against Central African Republic it was also not good and we won so we have to do better this year.
On Angola switching tactics before and during the game
I mean we took different positions when we saw that they played the five back. I think like I said we did quite well Angolans taking high risk in the first half as they pressed us and this allowed us to have a situation where we had one of one runs We didn’t use them well, the last pass, the last shot was not clinical enough. And in the second half I think we controlled them but we were a little bit unlucky to concede the goal.
I can’t really say much bad things about the second half, just like we have to score. In football sometimes it’s like that, if you don’t score, sometimes at the end you get punished but we are still in the race despite the defeat.
On positives going into the next game against Niger
The second half makes me very confident. The good thing is that it’s all still in our own hands. We play against all the other teams in our group and it’s all in our hands. We will not depend on anybody to qualify, at the moment and this is the good thing, this is a positive thing and I guess like it has been said there’s a lot of positive things to be taken out of the second half but surely at least we should draw this game and we have to learn to be more clinical, to make earlier shots and to be a little bit more egoistic it’s a thin line because I don’t want them to be too egoistic. But we have to get out of this and we will discuss the game tomorrow morning. I will show them a lot of clips and hopefully we will learn for the next match.
Sports
Gaging sports gains in 2024
In 10 days’ time, the year 2024 will pass as one of the most eventful years for sports as a nation.
It may be so due to the myriad of sports activities that got the various national teams and individual clubs busy with international competitions.
But one may also be right in asking what is there to show for those adventures.
Truthfully, one would prefer to walk from Accra to Tema than attempting to answer such a question.
Although there were a few gains to celebrate, the weight of failure clearly overshadows it and leaves sports fanatics in wonder land; uncertain about the direction of sports in Ghana.
Taking stock of the country’s fortunes regarding sports is more or less an annual ritual that usually provide similar answers years in and out; and this year will be no exception.
On our sports calendar, football has been the busiest with the Black Stars involved in FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFCON 2025 qualifiers.
The latter left Ghanaians heartbroken with an unprecedented outcome.
In a group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars failed to register a single win; losing three games and drawing the same number to finish at the rock bottom of the table with three points.
Eventually, the group was won by Angola’s Palencas Negras and Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan.
The USA, Canada and Mexico World Cup 2026 qualifiers, however, appears to be going well for the Stars with Ghana in second position behind Comoros with the same number of points – nine, out of four matches.
Other countries in Ghana’s group (Group I) include Madagascar, Mali, Central African Republic and Chad, the whipping boys in the group.
The Stars started the qualifers well, chalking a 1-0 home win over Madagascar but was pegged back by Comoros which beat Ghana 1-0.
The team, however, bounced back from that disappointment to beat Mali 2-1 in Bamako in one of the team’s finest performances in the year under review and recorded a 4-3 victory over the Central African Republic (CAF).
At the centre of the Black Stars performance storm was Head Coach Otto Addo who came under an avalanche of criticism for the team’s poor performance.
Ghana Football Association president, Kurt Okraku was also not spared of the backlash as his resignation became the clarion call on the lips of many.
But the two have shown they have very thick skin or might have developed a ‘dead goat’ syndrome, granting them the immunity to withstand the fiery darts of their critics.
On the continental level, FC Samartex and Nsoatreman FC made attempts to rescue Ghana’s free fall but that failed to materialise as their challenges in the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup competitions collapsed before the league stages.
But there was success for Ghana in football following gold medal performances from the male and female teams in the African Games football competition.
It appears some successes were chalked at the sub-continental level with Kurt Okraku reaping a few results from the WAFU B level.
The Golden Arms, the national armwrestling team was obviously the best team having snatched a total of 41 medals at the African Games consisting of eight gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Boxing recorded seven medals, athletics had six, weightlifting had three medals, hockey had two, and taekwondo recorded two medals while swimming had two and volleyball, one.
At the Paris Olympic Games, it was more of participation and acting as tourists than winning medals as Ghana fell short in all the disciplines competed.
But once again, it exposed the issues about poor preparation of athletes and lack of proper facilities back home to help local athletes.
Perhaps, one of the biggest shocks was the failure of the national boxing team, the Black Bombers to qualify for the Olympics.
Generally, it was not an encouraging performance from sports in the year. It actually marked a dip in performance as professional boxing failed to produce a world champion just like athletics, taekwondo, handball, badminton, table tennis, tennis and the others failed in their respective bids.
With a new government set to assume the reins of power and sports development to be championed by a new Sports Minister, it will be incumbent on the responsible agencies for sports development and promotion like the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the various sports federations to put their act together and work towards reviving Ghana sports to its past status.
By Andrew Nortey
Sports
Resetting Ghana sports
In a few weeks’ time, returnee president, John DramaniMahama, will assume the reins of governance after taking his Oath of Office on January 7, 2025.
This follows the National Democratic Congress (NDC) historic feat in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections held on December 7.
That ended the eight-year reign of President Nana AddoDankwaAkufo- Addo and his vice, DrMahamuduBawumia, of the New Patriotic Party.
It’s been less than a week after JDM’s declaration by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission who doubles as the Returning Officer of the presidential poll, Mrs Jean Mensa, but several calls and suggestions have been flying across the corridors of power.
For bitter NDC faithful, top NPP officials who were alleged to have been involved in shoddy deals should be whisked away by the police or the respective agency in charge of investigation.
Others have urged the new team to hit the ground running in a bid to alleviate the pain and difficulties in which Ghanaians find themselves.
Followers of sports are not left out in this regard. They want to see a lot of changes as part of a mammoth agenda to RESET the nation.
This may be coming on the back of the reality that Ghana sports in the past few years have been on a backward trajectory.
At the last Olympic Games in Paris, members of Team Ghana were mere passengers and tourists. The only excitement seen on the faces of Ghanaians was not as a result of a medal won but the sight of watching members fly Ghana flags during the opening ceremony.
The celebration was about the projection of Ghana as active and regular participants at the games but always far away from the medal podium.
The height of the disappointment was the Black Stars’ failure to qualify for the 2025 AFCON – the first miss in 20 years.
In a qualifying group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars under Coach Otto Addo ended the qualifiers winless – drawing three and lost same.
That is not to suggest that the other national teams are performing any better.
Apart from the national U-20 team, the Black Satellites, that triumphed in the football event of the last edition of the African Games hosted in Accra, Ghana’s success in football has been in minor competitions in the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) B region.
It has been so with many or all of the sports disciplines operating under the National Sports Authority (NSA). Athletics, boxing (both pro and amateur), handball, volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, kickboxing, tennis, table tennis, cycling etc. are experiencing similar fate.
Maybe, the only shining light is the sport of arm-wrestling, Ghana’s Messiah at the African Games.
Obviously, this is not a good record for a country that considers herself as a sports nation and clearly remains one of the first and foremost sectors that needs resetting.
What is of paramount interest to Ghanaians at the moment are the qualifiers for the USA, Canada and Mexico 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Fortunately, the Black Stars languish in second spot with an important away victory over Mali doing the magic.
Under the upcoming administration, fans must see a new composure and attitude reset to meet the challenges to qualify for the World Cup.
Football on the local scene must also see an improvement in teams’ performances and administration.
The brains administering the game must also be reset to understand and admit that the local players are capable of delivering the same results from the foreign legion at a much cheaper cost.
The other disciplines would also need massive push to come up but in all of this, sports with comparative advantages must get the nod over those that should be reduced to recreational sports.
Above all, the sector will need a supervisor with a good knowledge about the area to lead the resetting agenda in order not to lose focus or fall to the conspiracytheories of the sophisticated administrators.
By Andrew Nortey
