Ghanaians have been told to lower their expectations on the chances of the Black Stars winning the title at the 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations tournament, which started yesterday in Cameroon.
Ghana, four times champions of the most prestigious tournament on the continent, has seen the title elude them in the last 40 years and like previous years, have declared to end the trophy drought.
Sharing his thoughts with Times Sports on the chances of the Stars, president of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG), Mr Kwabena Yeboah, noted that for the first time in a long while, the connoisseurs and pundits of the game on the African continent have not mentioned Ghana as one of the favourites to lift the trophy like previous tournaments where Ghana was ranked as one of the favourites.
“For the first time, apart from a few Ghanaians who want to be chauvinistic, patriotic and are sentimentally attached to the Black Stars, not many people believe that Ghana can win the African Cup.
“We should lower our expectations but against the background that in the game of football, one plus one is not two. When you are not one of the favourites, the pressure is taken off you and you can play with the edge of the underdog which can be quite positive.”
According to him, most of the objective connoisseurs are predicting Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Cameroon and the second-tier countries like Mali “and that is where Ghana ranks; so he does not feel Ghana is one of the favourites for the tournament.
Mr Yeboah said credence is lend to the fact that Ghana is going into the competition with as many as 17 rookies, “and this means going into the tournament with many inexperience materials.”
“Yes, we may have some experience in there with the likes of Jonathan Mensah, but age is not his friendliest ally at the moment; so it is a very tough call.
“For me, I see Ghana definitely making it out of the group stages. For a very long time over the last decade, we have always played either in the semi-finals or the finals. The last time we got to the quarterfinals, I think from what I saw against the Algerians on Wednesday if we can correct some of these mistakes in the goalkeeping and the defence, then we should be able to exceed what we did the last time round and at least get to the semi-final.”
He commended the technical handlers and the team’s management committee for accepting to play the reigning African champions who until the game were on a 33-match unbeaten run which was extended to 34 after the 3-0 victory over Ghana.
“I want to commend whoever organised the Algerian game because they could have decided to play an unfashionable side and would have won but playing against the current champions ahead of tournament is commendable for me; they accepting to play them means that they were not ready to plaster over their deficiencies, so I really commend whoever organise the match.”
The SWAG president believes the Ghana v Morocco game will end in a draw.