Head coach of the local components of the Black Stars Herbert Addo has blamed his side’s 1-2 loss to debutants South Africa in their Group B opening game last Saturday on a lot of factors.
He stated in a post-match interview that their opponents resorted to long passes after the break which his side found difficult to contain, saying, “They changed their game plan and resorted to long passes and a pattern-less game plan.
“You know we are comfortable with playing the ball on the turf, and so that really affected our game and we couldn’t adjust to their style,” he told cafonline. Besides their opponent’s resorting to a different game plan, Coach Addo revealed that the undulating nature of the pitch also affected the team greatly, preventing the Black Stars from playing their free flow passing game.
According to coach Addo, his men dropped their guards at a point in time, and allowed their opponents to capitalize on the deficiency.
Ghana, finalists at the maiden edition of CHAN, fetched the opener through Daniel Larbi Coomson in the first half, but the South Africans fought back and scored twice after the break, through Collins Zimba and Leonard Shabangu to grab all the points at stake.
The loss notwithstanding, the Ghanaian trainer has given the assurance that “we have watched the Zimbawe-Niger game, we have mapped out strategies and we are going all out in our next two games.”
Ghana will play Zimbabwe who also lost 0-1 to Niger in a make-or-break tie on Wednesday, while the two winners South Africa and Niger, battle for supremacy in their second Group games.
Tomorrow, Gabon will take on Algeria in the first Group A game, while Sudan play Uganda in an expectedly uncompromising clash.