Archived News - 19th November 2006

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Ghana 1

Australia 1
Agogo (74) Aloisi (25, pen)

Loftus Road, London, England, 14-11-06

By Barney Cullum

Claude LeRoy extended his impressive unbeaten start as manager of the Black Stars to three matches after a Junior Agogo strike secured a deserved 1-1 draw with Australia in London Tuesday night.

The French coach had steered Ghana to victories over Japan in Yokohama and South Korea  in Seoul in his first two matches in charge in the autumn and the Black Stars took to the field in this latest “away” fixture looking confident from the off. A near capacity 14,370 crowd was primarily made up of Aussies, but local Ghanaian and pan-African supporters also turned out in numbers and their encouragement helped the Black Stars acclimatise quickly to a cold evening in West London.

Michael Essien, of course, has become accustomed to such conditions after a year and a half down the road with English Premiership champions Chelsea and Loftus Road looked a home from home as the midfielder shaped the early patterns of play with some intelligent short and long passing. Stephen Appiah, who never seems to have a bad game when captaining his country, linked up with his midfield partner several times in the opening stages to create chances for one another, and for their compatriots Peter Ofiri Quaye and Sulley Muntari.

A determined run from Essien after twenty minutes saw a ricochet break favourably for Ofiri Quaye- handed a rare start up front with Matthew Amoah missing injured and Asamoah Gyan rested- and the Greek-based forward hit a powerful volley wide of the left-hand post from distance. Udinese wide-man Muntari then dragged a shot wide in front of the watching Portsmouth assistant manager Joe Jordan, the scout in attendance to run the rule over Muntari, Appiah and Laryea Kingston.

Essien has publicly expressed his surprise that he remains, along with West Ham’s John Paintsil, the only Ghanaian to have won a contract in the English Premiership. The triumvirate of Muntari, Appiah and Kingston all looked keen to impress but their early good work was undermined by a dreadful defensive error from Hans Adu Sarpei that gifted the Socceroos a 25th minute penalty. Sarpei, starting in favour of Paintsil, played veteran former Portsmouth striker John Aloisi onside and then, in his haste to backtrack, rushed a sliding challenge and scythed down the 31-year-old in the box.

The Alaves striker duly picked himself up and slotted away the resulting spot-kick to give Australia an advantage that came against the general run of play. With a lead to defend Australia began to look very dangerous on the break, particularly with their 3-5-2 formation often outnumbering Ghana’s best two players Essien and Appiah in midfield.

Richard Kingson was luckily again in inspired form for Ghana and the Ankaraspor keeper made one truly implausible save from Aloisi at a corner, clawing the ball out of the top-corner with trademark West-African agility. Ghana ended the half 1-0 down and struggled to make an impression early on in the second period, where again, as is so often the case with the modern Ghana side, it looked like they missed the sort of striker who can a) hold the ball up and b) take an early shot at goal.

In fairness, their rhythm wasn’t aided by a raft of substitutions after the interval. World Cup stars Gyan and Haminu Dramani did bring some quality to proceedings, however, and Australia were eventually harassed into making a fatal mistake. A serious of dangerous attacks led to some unnecessarily desperate defending from Graham Arnold’s new-look side and when goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer collided with his own defender at a corner Junior Agogo was on hand to pounce and knock home a close-range equaliser in the 74th minute.

A draw was a fair result and Ghana, arguably, could even have won the game had they been a touch sharper when presented with half-chances in the opposition 18-yard box. Ghana have had a fantastic year, but there is a danger that their high profile successes in 2006 may have resulted in the Black Stars losing their element of surprise.

Arnold said after the game that he knew that if he “stopped Essien and Appiah that he could stop Ghana”. With the world now well aware of Ghana’s midfield weapons LeRoy needs to ease the burden in the engine room and can legitimately ask for more from his strikers as they continue their preparations for the African Nations Cup they will host on home soil in 2008. Junior Agogo will take a big boost from scoring the equaliser and perhaps other players in the party will be galvanised by transfers in the January window.

As well as Jordan, there were scouts from Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United and a range of other big British clubs assessing Ghana’s undoubtedly talented performing cast.

Ghana Ratings

Richard Kingson: 9
Hans Adu Sarpei: 4
Laryea Kingston: 7
Michael Essien: 8
Stephen Appiah: 8
Sulley Muntari: 6
Habib Mohamed: 7
Peter Ofiri Quaye: 5
Eric Addo: 7
Francis Dikoh: 7
Junior Agogo: 6

Please forward all press releases and feature ideas to Barney Cullum on barney@newafricansoccer.co.uk