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Settling on the final squad

The Dutch city of Rotterdam last Saturday offered Ghanaians the chance to assess the preparedness of the Black Stars in relation to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which begins this Thursday.

In a clash with a semblance of a showdown between Ghana and The Netherlands ahead of the 2010 World Cup that the Dutch won 4-1, the losing finalists of the South Africa tournament again overpowered their Ghanaian counterparts 1-0.

The overall performance of the Black Stars may not have met the expectations of Ghanaians but they were at least gladdened by the fact that this was a more honourable defeat than what the Stars suffered before the South African 2010 tournament. 

For most Ghanaians, the Rotterdam game made it possible for them to know the final 23-man Stars squad.

At the end of the day, three members of the team– David Accam, Jeffrey Schlupp, Jerry Akaminko– were unfortunate not to have escaped the dangling axe of the Stars’ Coach Kwasi Appiah. 

There was a tinge of cruel fate in the case of Akaminko- a bad injury in the match ruled him out of the World Cup, so Coach Appiah only had to identify two other players for ‘eviction’.

After working so hard to convince many Ghanaians that his place in the team was guaranteed, nothing could have been more cruel than the way Akaminko found himself exiting the squad.

In the case of Schlupp, I must confess I was shocked by news of his exclusion, especially against the background that his arrival in the country to join the team in camp had been heralded by rave comments of his wonderful showing in the English championship. 

As a matter of fact, many people are in no doubt that he was very instrumental in his club, Leicester City’s, qualification for the premiership next season.

After all, this was Schlupp’s first time of playing in Ghanaian colours, and it was unfair for anyone to insist that he had to be flawless while with the team. 

Talking specifically about the Rotterdam match, I don’t think his performance was altogether unimpressive to warrant the kind of unfair comments some people passed about him. The country may need his services another time.

In these circumstances, the coach is said to know best, so Kwasi Appiah’s judgement must be respected in this case.

All in all, however, it must be said that the lack of coordination in the Stars’ game in the Rotterdam match left much to be desired. It is a missing link in the team’s game plan that must be found before Brazil 2014 gets underway.

I would like to reiterate what I’ve said over and over again: Brazil 2014 is definitely going to be Ghana’s most difficult World Cup campaign to date. This imposes on us the urgency to raise the bar far higher than we did at Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010. 

It is only when we go that extra mile that the dream of rising to the occasion at Brazil 2014 shall come to pass.

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