George Amoako: C.K Akonnor must sit up
The chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee, George Amoako, has challenged Coach Charles Kwablan Akonnor and his technical team to sit up and immediately correct the mistakes that delayed Ghana’s qualification to the next Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) slated for Cameroun in 2022.
Coach Akonnor’s men were looking forward to booking an early qualification to the continental showpiece in their game against Sudan at Omdurman last Tuesday but a late goal by danger man, Mohammed Abdel Rahman, ruined Ghana’s party.
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Amoako, who is also the CEO of Premier League side, King Faisal, told the Graphic Sports in an exclusive interview yesterday that the outcome of the Sudan game fell below expectation and that some lessons should be learnt from it.
“I hope that the technical team would sit up and correct all the errors; the errors that ensured that we could not score a goal.
“All the game was centred in the midfield and our incursions upfront did not yield any dividend. They should ensure that they are able to penetrate defences and score goals; that is the only way to win matches”, he stated.
“We did not achieve what we sought to achieve; we thought we could either draw or win the game but it didn’t come off that way, and I think we need to learn a few lessons from that,” Mr Amoako lamented.
He also blamed the Stars loss partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said, contributed to the failure to assemble some top stars, and therefore had to improvise at the last hour when they realised they could not get some players.
“We had a lot of problems with getting exactly what we wanted because of COVID and other factors. You realised that there were a lot of late call-ups…but I believe that at the end of the day what we had on the bench could have won us the game,” he admitted.
Responding to a question as to what might have gone wrong, the former Asante Kotoko CEO seized the opportunity to criticise the tactical discipline of the players and their inability to establish themselves on the less-fancied Sudanese team by not creating many chances.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted; if it doesn’t go the way you want what does it mean? I am not a technical person to say the selection was bad.
“The only thing I can say is that how we played did not generate the needed goals to win the game, and for that matter, I would wish that the technical team do their best to ensure that subsequent games are won and won beautifully,” he stressed.
