It took a late strike to see Ghana’s senior team B to beat Namibia 1-0 in an international friendly in Kumasi on Wednesday.
Striker Stephen Baffour came off the bench to round off a difficult win for the local Black Stars in the 93rd minute with a sweet half volley which took a slight deflection off defender Denzil Haoseb to beat the Namibian goalkeeper.
The first half of the less patronized but useful friendly encounter at the Baba Yara Stadium saw the Brave Warriors dominating play but failed to convert any of the opportunities that came their way – strikers Sadney Urikhob and Henrico Botes came off the worst culprits as they failed to score despite exposing the Ghana central pair on countless occasions.
Coach Dauda Lutterodt who took charge of the team in the absence of Maxwell Konadu (away in France with the Team A) looked to have identified Ghana’s first half problems by quickly bringing on Heart of Lions’ defender Asiamah Badu for the jittery Emmanuel Akuoko in the 54th minute.
His introduction brought about some calmness at the backline as Ghana began to take total control of most parts of the second half.
“Namibia did well in the first half. My defence couldn’t deal with their aerial ball especially in the centre of our defence,” said Ghana Team B assistant coach Lutterodt.
“At half time, we talked about that and made some few corrections and when we came on the pitch, we brought in a taller defender [Asiamah Badu] to cut out those kind of balls. That also accounted for our opponents not being able to operate. I don’t know if that’s the only style they have but that helped us to cut that out and gave us the chance to dominate,” he added.
Ghana made quite a number of substitutions as the Black Stars continued their search for a goal and in one of those attacking moves, club mates Latif Salifu and Stephen Baffour combined effectively in an eye-catching move but the latter’s final ball was easy parried away by the calm-looking goalie Virgil Vries.
Ghana’s continued surge upfront however paid dividends when Baffour connected well, a pass from the right to volley home the match winner in the closing stages of the game.
Namibia put up a good performance but were generally let down by their inability to put away their numerous chances, an experience head coach Ricardo Mannetti has taken in good stride.
“I had two objectives - the first one, Namibia has always struggled especially during the qualifiers of any competition to get points away. Throughout the years, we always struggle in away games. I wanted to give the players a strong mentality so we chose Ghana, in my opinion, a respectable football nation that has achieved a lot on the continent,” the Italian said in his post-match remarks.
“We think we can learn a thing or two from them especially with the conditions. Our weather conditions are very different. The pitches are very different and the style of play is also very different so it is an opportunity to expose my boys.”
“The second objective is that we have the Cosafa tournament in May that Ghana has also been invited for – they will take part in it so it was a good opportunity to weigh ourselves against one of the opponents in Cosafa. I have a couple of new players in the team. They did well in the league and I wanted to see how they react to the conditions outside and a type of opponent like Ghana.”
”The game has opened up my eyes as to who can make it in the team but it’s unfortunate we couldn’t convert our chances especially in the first half,” Mannetti ended.
Namibia travel to Lome to face the Hawks of Togo in another friendly on Saturday.
Line-ups:
Ghana: Mozart Adjetety - Amos Korankye, Joshua Otoo, Emmanuel Akuoko/Asiamah Badu, Alfred Nelson - Malik Akowuah (c)/Richard Arhin, Noah Martey/Mumuni Zakari, Alhassan Nuhu/Daniel Darkwah, Bernard Morrison/Latif Salifu - Nathaniel Asamoah/Francis Attuquaye, Yakubu Mohammed/Stephen Baffour
Unused subs: Daniel Agyei, Richard Akrofi, Daniel Egyin
Namibia: Virgil Vries - Willem Mwedihanga, Chris Katjiukua, Denzil Haoseb, Ananias Gebhardt - Ronald Ketjijere (c), Wangu Gomes, Petrus Shitembi, Deon Hotto/Joslin Kamatuka - Sadney Urikhob/Peter Shalulile, Henrico Botes/Benson Shilongo
Unused subs: Max Mbaeva, Denis Tjetinda, Charles Hambira, Gregory Auchumeb, Robert Nganjone, Nicky Musambani
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