Wakaso hands Ghana first AFCON win as Black Stars edge close to quarter-finals
Posted On Thursday, 24th January 2013
The Ghanian Team celebrates after Mubarak Wakaso opened the scoring
A solitary penalty strike from Mubarak Wakaso was enough to hand Ghana their first win in the 2013 African Cup of Nations as the Black Stars beat Mali 1-0 in a Group B match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
The first 45 saw Ghana playing the better quality football, but for all their promise and swift passing they actually struggled to create many decent opportunities on goal from open play.
One of the biggest talking points of the half happened as early as the seventh minute when many would have argued that the Black Stars goalkeeper, Fatau Dauda, should have been show a straight red card.
Miss communication between defender John Boye and Dauda allowed Mali’s Seydou Keita to pressure the goalkeeper into handling the ball outside the 18-yard box. Being the last man, between Keita and the goal, Dauda should have been shown red, but instead the referee opted to show some kindness and branded the yellow card.
From the resulting free-kick Keita came within inches of giving Mali the lead when his 20-yard effort whispered past the left-hand post.
After that, however, it was all Ghana but they struggled to break down the Eagles defence and had to opt to shoot from long range as a result.
Harrison Afful came closest to scoring from distance for the Black Stars in the 24th minute when his 30-yard thunderbolt sailed narrowly over the crossbar.
In the 32nd minute Ghana came close again to breaking the deadlock, this time from a left-side set-piece. The ball was whipped into the box and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu rose above the Mali defence to head the ball on goal, but he saw his 14-yard effort bounce off the right hand post.
Finally, in the 36th minute the Back Stars were able to fashion an opening on goal in general play as Asamoah Gyan slipped Agyemang-Badu through on goal, but he was recklessly pulled down inside the box by Mali’s Adama Tamboura and the referee did not hesitate to point to the spot.
Mubarak Wakaso stepped up and superbly dispatched the penalty into the top right-hand corner of the net to give Ghana the lead, 1-0, a lead they kept going into the half time break.
The second 45 saw the play move from end to end as Ghana tried to put the result beyond doubt while Mali tried desperately to find the equaliser.
But the amount of pressing by both sides resulted in the game being a little broken and sloppy. Consequently, players were getting frustrated and a host of yellow cards (five to be precise in the second half – two for Ghana and three for Mali) were shown for careless tackles.
Subsequently, clear-cut chances on goal were few and far between and again Ghana had to try their luck from distance.
Gyan came close to doubling his sides lead in the 55th minute when his 24-yard shot skimmed the outside of the left-post.
The Black Stars had another chance from a corner-kick in the 74th minute when Isaac Vorsah met the set-piece with a powerful header, but his effort went just over the crossbar.
Four minutes later, Mali’s goalkeeper, Mamadou Samassa, had to be at his best diving full stretch to his right to palm a 30-yard free-kick from Agyemang-Badu around the post for a corner-kick.
That was the last decent action of the match as Ghana picked up their first win of the AFCON tournament and thus handed Mali their first defeat.
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Asamoah Gyan needs to be benched in the next game,bring in Clottey,play Atsu and Asante on the wing.We also need to cut the silly mistakes,ie John Boye’s back pass that almost and should ended in a red card,the goalie sometimes flaps too much but in all good performance,wasn’t great but definitely solid. the lone striker strategy isn’t for me, we have to spice things up.
To this point, I’m still shocked as to why John Boye made that back pass. Though the Black Stars won,we should keep in mind that a FIFA referee won’t be this forgiving,in an international match against better opposition,we would get a red card and a thrashing.
Ok, so you have one more game to win and then nothing for you. Remember I told you guys you will win only two games?
Who cares about what you told us?
GH VS MALI!
WE MUST BUILD MORE ON OUR 2 TOUCH AND PASSING ACCURACY. ESPECIALLY IN AND AROUND THE 18 YARD BOX.
our PLAYERS LACK DISCIPLINE
TOO MANY UNECESSARY TACKLES. TOO MANY YELLOW CARDS. IT WILL HAUNT US LATER OOOOO
IN 2 GAMES, WE HAVE 6 YELLOW CARDS. IF WE BAG 3 YELLOW CARDS PER GAME IN THIS TOURNEY, WHERE WILL IT END US?
AA IS TOO HARDHEADED. CONTINUING TO USE AFFUL AT LEFTBACK IS A BAD IDEA.
IF AND WHEN WE MEET A BETTER OPPONENT, GH WILL PAY DEARLY
PAINSTIL SHOULD NOT BE STARTED ON THE RIGHT. BOYE, BOYE…WAT WAS HE THINKING? I TOLD U AA, NOT
TO START BOYE. DEFENDERS PROTECT THEIR GOALIES FROM HARM. WAT BOYE DID WAS VER VERY STUPID…
USE AFFUL ON THE RIGHT. WAKASSO OR KISSI ON THE LEFT/3. KASA AT THE 11. KASA HAS BEEN INACTIVE AND
USELESS IN MIDFIELD. USE HIM ON THE WING AT THE 11. LET HIM AND ATSU OVERLAP…
THE TEAM SHOULDNT BE TOO EXCITED. WE COULDNT SCORE FROM OPEN PLAY BUT THRU A PENALTY
GYAN WAS USELESS. EVEN THE WHITE COMMENTATORS SAID THEY WERENT IMPRESSED WITH GYAN THIS FAR.
KASA IN MIDFIELD WAS ALSO USELSS. THE SOLUTION: START CLOTTEY AHEAD OF GYAN. USE KASA ON THE 11,
ATSU ON THE 7 AS A SUB FOR ADOMAH
AA MUST STRIVE FOR PERFECTION!. STRIVE FOR PERFECTION!
PLS, CHAANGE THE SMALL LETTERED NAMES ON THE JERSEYS….
I can see de enemies are crying now.shame, fire burn them.
WHERE ARE THE CHICKEN FUCKERS ZAMBIANS?HAHAHA….YOU LIVE TO RESPECT YOUR FATHERS AS FAR AS THIS GAME IS CONCERNED.WE OUTPLAYED THE MALIANS IN CONTRAST TO YOUR PREMATCH COMMENTS.WE SCORED THEM A LONE GOAL AS WE SEE THAT THEY QUALIFY ALONGSIDE WITH GHANA TO MAKE A WEST-AFRICAN SLOT.HE,,NIGERIA IS READY TO EXPLODE TOMORROW AS I SAID ARLIER ON.I SID GHANA WINS TODAY AND WE HAVE DONE IT.I SAID ZAMBIA WILL LOSE AGAINST NIGERIA TOMORROW,AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS.AMEN.
ZAMBIANS?DID YOU WATCH HOW GHANA PLAYED TODAY?ZAMBIA CAN NEVER ACHIEVE THIS LEVEL WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS.VILLAGERS,COME TO GHANA THE STARS OF AFRICA AND BE WISE,SKLLFUL AND KNOWLEDGEABLE.
weldone boys.
By de way well done boyz n thanks to Akwasi Appiah.
gyan needs a supporting striker. He alone is finding it hard to break down the malians defence.
exactly, yiadom will complement him well.
Although we won the team played below power. Kwesi Appiah and his boys need to be up and doing.
ALL ZAMBIANS READ THIS…….HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWHERE ARE THE CHICKEN FUCKERS ZAMBIANS?HAHAHA….YOU LIVE TO RESPECT YOUR FATHERS AS FAR AS THIS GAME IS CONCERNED.WE OUTPLAYED THE MALIANS IN CONTRAST TO YOUR PREMATCH COMMENTS.WE SCORED THEM A LONE GOAL AS WE SEE THAT THEY QUALIFY ALONGSIDE WITH GHANA TO MAKE A WEST-AFRICAN SLOT.HE,,NIGERIA IS READY TO EXPLODE TOMORROW AS I SAID ARLIER ON.I SID GHANA WINS TODAY AND WE HAVE DONE IT.I SAID ZAMBIA WILL LOSE AGAINST NIGERIA TOMORROW,AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS.AMEN.
ZAMBIANS?DID YOU WATCH HOW GHANA PLAYED TODAY?ZAMBIA CAN NEVER ACHIEVE THIS LEVEL WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS.VILLAGERS,COME TO GHANA THE STARS OF AFRICA AND BE WISE,SKLLFUL AND KNOWLEDGEABLE.
I WANT THE ZAMBIANS BACK HERE.THEY ARE OUTWHERE ARE THE CHICKEN FUCKERS ZAMBIANS?HAHAHA….YOU LIVE TO RESPECT YOUR FATHERS AS FAR AS THIS GAME IS CONCERNED.WE OUTPLAYED THE MALIANS IN CONTRAST TO YOUR PREMATCH COMMENTS.WE SCORED THEM A LONE GOAL AS WE SEE THAT THEY QUALIFY ALONGSIDE WITH GHANA TO MAKE A WEST-AFRICAN SLOT.HE,,NIGERIA IS READY TO EXPLODE TOMORROW AS I SAID ARLIER ON.I SID GHANA WINS TODAY AND WE HAVE DONE IT.I SAID ZAMBIA WILL LOSE AGAINST NIGERIA TOMORROW,AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS.AMEN.
ZAMBIANS?DID YOU WATCH HOW GHANA PLAYED TODAY?ZAMBIA CAN NEVER ACHIEVE THIS LEVEL WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS.VILLAGERS,COME TO GHANA THE STARS OF AFRICA AND BE WISE,SKLLFUL AND KNOWLEDGEABLE.
Well done to Coach Appiah & the boys for making GH proud.where are those haters?
Asamoah Gyan is far frm an ideal leader to lead this troops. Did u see the eye he gave Adomah when he mistimed a pass to him(gyan)? He’s uninspiring, dull n lacks leadership qualities. I miss Stephen Tonardo Appiah. What a leader he was. Gyan shd sit up, asap…
AG is rather lethargic. Lacking sharpness. I don’t why.
masa aside being uninspiring the guy is just not up there.He spent much time on the ground than holding up play.He lost over 90% of the direct passess even to his feet.As for the team we just hope they can do better cos is obvious we have no game changers.We needed a true winger in this came as we had only one upfront but the number of runs down the right side was less than5 in the whole game
Basically a good perfomance by our boys but still work to do. defeating mali is not exactly an easy task they are one of the big guns in this competition. I am happy with afful as our left back. Even though i dont like paintstil he played a decent game. Wakasso impressed me. Badu played very well. D.boateng when h came on did his job superbly to break down attacks and anticapate the mali movements. the only thing we need to imrove is commmunication, awareness and our killer instincts and final passes in the final third. asamoah gyan is oo isolated in attack. with this in mind i shame is crictics we need to get our midfield atleast 2 of them to support gyan in attack.
A slight improvement, yes, still, Ghana has a long way to go, if they want to consider themselves not favorites, but simply pretenders. I believe that the tactics were right this time. And the changing of positions. The coach saw that Badu didn’t provide cover to Boateng during the previous match, so he did what? He placed Badu as a DM, exactly where Boateng was playing, watching the back of the team. That way, Badu would know that next time he plays as a central midfielder, he will not omit to cover the DM. You watch my back, i watch yours. Next to Badu, the coach needed two tactically apt footballers to assist him. He chosed Rabiu and KASA. Rabiu is the most disciplined player inside the squad, he must be an example to everyone. And KASA is the leader and best player, he should play as a midfielder. So, 3 men in this crucial part of the pitch, pulling together in a satisfying way. Not brilliant, but ok. On the side back line, Afful and Paintsil. Afful may not be the best left back in the world, but he is a controlled player, he knows when to attack and when to defend. On the other side, Paintsil, behaves more like a central defender than a right back. He is not at his best, but he is allright. Why? Because, on this system(4-3-2-1), you don’t neccessarily need to play the overlap. The coach, wisely saw that Mali couldn’t attack from the flanks, in fact they possess of so few ways to attack. So, he left them the initiative and played the counter attack. Like the good old Milos days. Ghana has the players to do so because they dispose of two rather old fashioned but effective wingers. Adomah and Wakaso may not be the best players on one to one, may not shine with their dribbling skills, still they can carry the ball in high tempo, while having free space. If you start in a match like this a dexterous ball handler like Atsu is, you risk your back been left exposed, like in the previous match. Furthemore, this kind of player is more needed when you have possession. So, everything was right? Not by some miles! A football team always starts from the keeper and ends to the striker. I don’t know what happened with Quarasey, i don’t know how good is Adgey, but seriously you don’t expect to shine with Dauda. I hope i’m proven wrong. I know that Boye(who is a player i fancy) behaved like a schoolboy in the 6th minute, but where was the keeper to cover? The keeper was on his line! That’s something unheard of! I know i may sound harsh but it is my opinion. And what about the striker? I mean, seriously, what would be the difference if next time Ghana plays with 10 men from kick off? Asamoah Gyan didn’t seem an average player today. He seemed a non player. It was like the coach picked up a man from the street and told him: “hey, you wanna play for the Black Stars?” Sure, why not. And after the match, we can have an azonto night! To me, the worst thing with Gyan, isn’t that he isn’t a good player anymore(at least, outside the UAE league). It is rather that for him, everything continues to turn around his ego. It’s like time stood still and i’m having a deja vu of 2008 Gyan. It’s just that this time we are dealing with a mediocre Gyan. And you put this man as the team’s captain? You put a man, who puts his ego above all as a captain of a national team? What for? To inspire? To set up the good example? The way i look at it, the other players rather fear than respect him. I can’t explain otherwise the fact that in several occasions, while on counter, the midfield players, instead of passing the ball to the side(as they should do with this system), they were passing it directly to Gyan. Only to watch him stumble and lose it in most cases. And there is this story of shooting from distance. Badu didn’t do it today(except in one occasion), but we saw Wakaso do it in a couple of occasions. Even Afful! This shows lack of discipline if you want my opinion. And it is like a disease that’s spreading. If Badu(who i consider the most valuable player alongside KASA) sets such an example, then Wakaso is gonna say: “hey, if Badu does it, i can try it sometime”. And then comes Afful who says: “You know what, i’ll give it a shot, why not, after all everyone else does it!”. I apologize for being too critical. I just think that criticising after a bad result is a sport for some people. They do it for the sake of it, without anything concrete to say. Just spreading misery. I’d prefer to have one or two objections when everything seems to work. And that is the problem with the BS today. That things just seem to work the right way. Are they really, or it all depends on whether Wakaso is going to put the penalty kick on the back of the net or not?
This Ghana team is not as impressive as the 2012 team. You basically stole the game from Mali. Your goalkeeper should have been sent off for handling the ball outside the 18 yard area.
Do you think that there is a single sane person in Ghana, who doesn’t agree that the keeper should’ve been sent off? You make it sound as if there was some sort of conspiracy. If there is someone to blame, that would surely be the referee. In this case, why don’t you visit an ivorian site and make your complains over there, since the referee is Ivorian? In the meantime, you should question yourself, why would you need a 10 men ghanaian side, in order to beat them? Did anyone was unfair to Mali in a 11 against 11 confrontation? Not that i know of! On the contrary, you should rather seek for the reasons why Mali was so poor in creating chances, even though they had the ball possession. Are you satisfied with their performance?
Go read the rules again!
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_12_fouls_misconduct_en_47379.pdf
It was not a red card!!
@ Gimli, excellent submition. I’m highly impressed… Hope to see more of ya comments here. Everything u’ve written is unadulterated- Pure truth. More Respect Bro… If u’ve been visiting this place quite long, u’ll know we are mean’t to b brothers, cos we seem to wear same glasses.
Thanks
I don’t claim to be mister perfect. Just sharing some thoughts. Peace to you!
What you are is a Gyimi Gyimii!!!
Here are the rules!
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_12_fouls_misconduct_en_47379.pdf
Rather than condemn your country first find out the rules!
Now go watch the video again!!
There was an improvement in the performance of the BS terms of technical discipline. Coach Appiah rang changes to protect our goal are at the appropriate time. BS has the history of shaky starts in every tournament but progresses later, that is match after match…My observation about the players in this match.
1. Fatau Dauda…Excellent performance and must keep it up, especially area ball–perfect
2. Paitsil..Good job coupled with experience
3.Harrison Afful…Has solved the left back position. Superb skills surging forward and coming back to defend..Absolutely fantastic.
4. Isaac Vorsah..Amazing area balls clearance was crucial to protect our goal area.
5. John Boye. Fantastic job which helped our defense.
6. Rabiu Mohammed..Needs to improve upon his performance. Always heckling opponents down to attract yellow cards and unnecessary fricks against the BS.
7.Albert Adomah..Tremendous improvement and he was darling to watch
8. Agyemang Badu..Very aggresive and even the best striker for the day. Good job..doing his job and helping Asamoah Gyan to strike.
9. Asamoah Gyan..He needs to lift up his game because he was sluggish upfront. All the Adomah pull out were wasted Emmanuel Clottey should compete for this position to wake Gyan up.
10. Kwadwo Asamoah..Play maker upfront, creative and needs to be encouraged o explode during the subsequent matches.
11. M. Wakaso…He is gradually becoming the revelation..Always trying to have a great impact in the game.. The sport kick was expertly taken by him.
Reserves…Derek Boateng, Solomon Asante, Atsu who must be allowed to play that role.
NB, Atsu needs to be psyched not to go watch personalities but play his normal game like club level and he will make thing happen
Niger coach Gernot Rohr:
“We are happy to make Nigerien football history [by earning a first Nations Cup point]. The players gave everything.
“When you see a team with so much heart and talent, and in which some players do not have a club, we can only be proud of them.
“We improved from the first game, not just in terms of the result but also our performance.”
DR Congo coach Claude LeRoy:
“It’s a missed opportunity. It was possible for us to move forward. We have to concede that after we missed the two chances we did not play well.”
is it back to the one goal project? lol.