The Black Stars coach can sting rhetorically, man!
Asked why he attacked more in H2, he said it was because the English played more openly: “you can’t dance Samba to Rock n Roll.”
Carlos Queiroz (CQ) also said he knew if the Black Stars could stop the English from scoring in H1, they would go into panic at half-time. Because England would not know what to do.
We can be critical when the times deserve it. Here, the Ghana FA deserves credit for making an inspired decision to change coaches at the last minute.
I don’t ever hate on Otto Addo, the coach Ghana replaced, but I doubt he could so comprehensively have out-thought, Thomas Tuchel.
They may not have been perfect, but the Black Stars showed up; they played like their lives depended on the outcome. And all the Ghana fans said “Amen!”
How many times are DISCIPLINE and HARDWORKING and COMMITMENT and DETERMINATION and SACRIFICE, used so meaningfully to describe anything so quintessentially Ghanaian?
Bravo to CQ, the experienced coach. Wayne Rooney was superlative about him on BBC; he kept talking about CQ’s capabilities to train teams to defend with discipline. Implying that at Man U the now Ghana coach handled this aspect of coaching for SAF, with panache.
I prefer that a team scores in a game. Ultra defensive teams need some lucky moments. I think Jordan Ayew and Inaki Williams should have come off earlier. There were moments when Semenyo held on too much to the ball. Etc.
I am not saying the Ghana coach is pefect. But I am saying he is very good. He undestood the arrogance of the English team after they thumped Croatia, and turned it against them.
Ghana was not expected to show up, we did – in an impenetrable wall of steel.
A hardworking England had almost 80% possession, no goal. Unnerving. It showed in Thomas Tuchel’s visible, animated frustration as the game went on. He has much thinking to do; he deployed magical creativity too late in the day.
Ghanaian hearts thumped faster when the impact of Bukayo Saka and Rogers started to show. Had there been more time, it is anyone’s guess what could have happened. Tuchel will be roasted by an England fan base that is not known to the world for patience.
Harry Who…? ABELE!!
Seriously, it was a great game played at the highest level of strategic combat. A Great Show that enriched the World Cup.
Ever the diplomat, I congratulate both teams.
