Ghana 1-3 Cote d'Ivoire: through the rear-view mirror

So the Black Stars got beat by the Elephants. If you were surprised by that result, please see Dr Juma because you may be suffering from any combination of the ailments that his mystic treatment cures. Most of my guys who have been following the team were expecting this kinda result. In fact, one of them predicted a 3-0 defeat a few minutes before kick-off and only a dodgy penalty decision makes me cautious about ringing him up for the weekend’s lotto numbers.

Before you shout Nuff Crisis, I will ask that we look at the positives from the game. First silver lining is the chance given to the youngsters. Many a time, we have complained that the national team is a sort of gerontocracy, with too much emphasis on seniority. So with a total of eight members of the FIFA Youth World Cup winning squad going to Angola and guys like Dede Ayew getting a starting place, we should be happy with the prospects of young people in the senior squad. I was also happy to see other new faces, not necessarily from the youth team. I think Kojo Asamoah in particular continues to impress and is a source of real inspiration going into the future.

The second positive I take from the match is that we matched Ivory Coast quite well. Surprisingly well. There were periods in the second half (between Eboue’s red card and Tiene’s screamer) that I began to feel we could actually draw the match at least. Ivory Coast fielded a far more experienced team than Ghana (although I think the “Team B” argument is very lame). Holding them in check for the most part should be a consolation, even if the scoreline is more than unflattering.

Ghana still plays with good technique. I know some of you may disagree with me on this point but it is one I’m convinced of. We have that ability to keep the ball on the ground and play it in the classic Ghana style. We did not rush the play, although at times we could have done with more urgency. I’ll come back to this point. With football changing so much in the last decade, placing more emphasis on power and lightning speed, it pleases the occasional purist in me to see Ghana play the ball as we did when building our reputation, especially with the youth squads of 1990-1997.

The brightest spot remains Michael Essien. About two months ago, a Chelsea fan I met in bar was adamant that Michael Essien is in the top three best players in the world. His argument was this: besides Ronaldo and Messi, there’s nobody else out there who can change a game the way Essien does. Although I did not agree completely with his conclusion, I saw the logic of his premise. Essien is definitely a game changer. This was evident in how the game swung the way of the Stars when he came on the second half. He’s got amazing drive, which carries the rest of the team on it. I was more than pleased to see him have so much influence in the game, even at about 50% fitness. He’s an untouchable. If Ghana is to have any chance at the World Cup, we'll need him fit and in top form.

Familiar weaknesses were all too prevalent in our game. First, can someone explain to me why Ghana still keeps such a high defensive line? I thought after this disaster, we would learn our lessons. The high lines make us very vulnerable to the counter attack and seeing as our defenders are not the quickest around, the technical team should abandon the idea altogether. When playing against a team blessed with pace like La Cote d’Ivoire, the last thing you want to do is leave a lot of space between the defence and the goalkeeper. It will be exploited and that’s exactly what happened for Gervinho’s goal. A related point is our inability to set proper offside traps. Again, this is a carryover from previous tournaments. There always seems to be someone too wary (or daft) to keep within the offside line and ends up playing the opposing strikers on. If a team doesn’t have players confident enough to set offside traps or quick enough to recover, it has no business indulging in that sort of thing. Get rid.

Another familiar theme is the incompetence of our strikers. Is it time Ghana played a 4-5-1 system seeing as our greatest strength is in the middle of the park? I would think it could be experimented with. Even though we played well during parts of the game, we rarely looked like scoring. Our strikers struggled to impose themselves on the Ivorian defence, until Asamah Gyan came on. Even then, we did not trouble a poor Boubacar Barry much. That our only real chance in the second half came out of a defensive error is not a good sign. I know this is a much talked about subject and I’ll be surprised if we do not remedy the situation before South Africa. There may be some sense in the pursuit of Mario Balotelli after all.

Although I mentioned Ghana’s still excellent technique earlier, I was still taken aback by how poor our distribution was. Maybe there’s something to be said about the terrible state of the pitch, but still it was very not Ghanaian. I also think we were not combative enough. The aggression we showed at CAN 2008 seemed to be lacking in the match yesterday. I don’t think the Ivory Coast is the strongest team mentally so going a little bit more physical may have ruffled them. We certainly have to improve in these stakes before we face Burkina, quite clearly the most physical side in world football.

This Ghana side has problems but I expect the Black Stars to beat Burkina. I still consider the CAN as a rehearsal for the World Cup though and on yesterday's showing, we have work to do before June