Otto Addo is part of the Blame : I am sure Otto Addo might be biting his finger nails inside his hotel room in Doha on Friday morning when he looks back at his decisions of the 77th minute of Thursday’s defeat against Portugal.
At 1-1 why do you take out your captain , your most experienced player with 110 completed international matches , the top scorer of the team , the player who had just netted a key equalizer against a top-drawer like Portugal and was on augmented confidence?
Taking out Inaki Williams would have made more sense.
To worsen matters Addo also bundled out the player who assisted the 73rd minute Ayew equalizer – Mohammed Kudus. To be blunt , this was a poor set of substitutions done by the Black Stars head coach in the 77th minute.
This poor game management proved decisive and overrides the overall positivity of the Black Stars game ; because immediately after the two changes were done , the opponents scored twice in two minutes before one of the 77th-minute subs Osman Bukari netted Ghana’s second goal in the 89th minute.
It is true that the the Morocccan-born American referee awarded a controversial penalty for Cristiano Ronaldo against the Black Stars but after all the Stars fought back to equalize. It was rather the two changes that changed the confidence of the team as the coach decided to take out , at once , his goal scorer and the assister.
Otto Addo must used this mistake as a lesson tool which he must never repeat in subsequent matches.
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