A UK- based Ghanaian coach, Kofi Koranteng has called on the newly constituted Ghana Football Association to take a holistic view of tactical evolution and help in the development of players on penalty shootout and development of coaches.
Following the Black Meteors inability to end the country’s 14 years jinx in playing the Olympics Games, the issue of penalty shootout has become a major headline in the country.
Apart from the Black Satellites winning the FIFA U-20 World Cup with Sellas Tetteh in Egypt in 2009, the country has struggled to make a meaningful impact when it comes to penalty shootout in any major tournament.
The Black Stars lost to Burkina Faso on penalties in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and also lost to Ivory Coast on penalties in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
In this year alone, the local Black Stars lost to Senegal on penalties in the 2019 WAFU Championship held in Dakar.
The senior national team, the Black Stars of Ghana astonishingly lost on penalties to Tunisia in the round of 16 in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt to extend the country’s trophyless jinx.
In the just-ended U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Cairo, the Black Meteors failed to book an automatic qualification to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo losing on penalties to Ivory Coast in the semi-finals.
In the third and fourth place, Ibrahim Tanko and his lads lost to South Africa on penalty shootout to end the dream of playing the Olympic Games next year.
With the Ghana Premier League set to kick off on December 27, reports have emerged that the Executive Committee of the Ghana FA are proposing that there should be a penalty shootout anytime a match ends in a stalemate.
However, Kofi Koranteng who holds Uefa licenses B certificate in coaching beleives it is about time the country takes a holistic approach to confront issues dragging our football to the gutters.
“Holistically, if you take a look at the U-20, U-23, Black Stars and even the local side, from my personal observation, comparing the last 10 or 12 years, tactically, we have a long way to go,” he told Asempa FM’s Kobby Stone.
“When it comes to proper structuring and organization, it all boils down to money because of you take a look at Spain in 2008, 2010 and 2012, they have won the European Championship twice and FIFA World Cup once and in all they did not push the match on penalties because they deployed a supreme tactical approach to the games.
“If you take a look at top managers in Europe, they don’t push their matches to penalties. They make sure they win the match by a lone goal in regulation time and those things are very important but in the last 10 or 15 years, it has been the supreme tactical approach of coaches.
“If you watched the game Ghana lost to South Africa in the U-23 Championship in Egypt, the South Africans were tired and they were scared of our attacking play and as to why we failed to put them under pressure and control the game, it a problem.
“The same problem keeps on repeating itself if you take a look at the pattern and it has become a mental problem for us. When you are going to play any final match, penalties is an afterthought because you don’t want to get to that point but at the same time, it is important.
“The tactical evolution is what Ghana has to take a look at it and decide that this is where we want to go,” he added.
