2014 World Cup: Why Kwesi Appiah ought to sit up

• Posted on June 7, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The football displayed by Ghana in the pre-World Cup friendly against The Netherlands on May 31, in theopinion of some fanatic fans of the senior national team, was nothing short of appalling.

 TIME IS NOW | Appiah must get his strategies right because Brazil is due

The notion that prompted the arrangement of the match, that the Black Stars would get to test their ability against one of football’s veritable powerhouses ahead of the Mundial that kicks off next week in Brazil, was a truly noble one. Never was it expected that the Oranje would be caught pants down by the west Africans, and so it proved.

Manchester United’s manager-in-waiting Louis van Gaal had his composed Dutch team literally walk all over Ghana as his opposite number, 53-year-old Kwesi Appiah, stood mesmerized. At least it did appear that way.

Spectators would hardly be unjustified in pondering just what plan the Ghanaian technical team took into the game, given the outcome. It may have been just a friendly, but the general performance of the players was truly shambolic.

For large sections of the first half, Ghana’s starters seemed unable to locate each other with passes, even if their very lives depended on doing so. Instead, they merely hoofed the ball up field in the aimless manner of a rugby team with no coach at the helm.

Was this expected?

Hardly.

All observers were looking forward to a game that pitted the 2010’s World Cup finalists against a side that almost became their semi-final opponents at that tournament. The Ghanaians were not expected to run out winners, however, given that the Dutch were motivated to give a good showing before their own prior to emplaning from home territory for the final phase of their preparations for Brazil 2014.

And, indeed, Ghana were totally brutalized in the opening minutes, perhaps due to their trainer’s languor that probably caused him to select a team that would barely last against such tough opposition.

Appiah appeared flustered, while van Gaal merely nibbled on his fingernails in relative satisfaction, jotting notes, and animatedly addressing the few underperforming players on his own team.

While Appiah showed himself beaten early in the contest, van Gaal proved exactly what has made him such a world class coach over the years. He picked a team which was so up to the task on the day. For Appiah, on the other hand, the game only served as a means of assessing the players he had called up provisionally against a team of such might: the ultimate test ahead of the global football showpiece which elevates you to the heights of facing the similarly strong sides like Germany and Portugal.

Thus, rather than using a probable World Cup starting line-up, the ‘Silent Killer’ chose to stick with rookies who could barely find themselves space on a pitch sized 110×60 yards.

If Ghana were to go into Group G action at the World Cup proper with the kind of players that started the game in Rotterdam, we would surely be beaten to the finish line by a crippled snail. A solid first XI versus the Dutch would have given a glimpse of what lay ahead in Brazil, at least, starting with the June 16 opener against the USA.

Pending that imminent date, Appiah ought to sit up and get his act right. Time is running out.

By Thierry Nyann