The rise and rise of Anthony Annan

As the great success of George Weah, Abedi Pele, Roger Milla, Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba attests, African football has a rich tradition of producing some of the game’s finest attacking talents. Of the last 17 winners of the African Player of the Year award fully 15 recipients have been strikers with just two, Morocco’s Mustapha Hadji and Nigeria’s Emmanuel Amuneke representing other positions.

However, this well-established trend of the “best” African players being heavily concentrated in attacking positions to the detriment of the defensive qualities of a number of the continent’s national teams is gradually being bucked by the emergence and rise of several world-class holding midfielders. Over the last four to five years the likes of Yaya Toure, Seydou Keita, Jon Obi Mikel and Didier Zokora have all made a significant impression in European football, proving themselves to be hard-working, versatile, and, above all, tactically astute. And yet arguably the most pivotal and representative figure of this transition has been Ghana and Rosenborg’s Anthony Annan.

A spiky, gritty character – as his disciplinary record bears out – who relishes the defensive side of the game, Annan is a refreshing antithesis to the “vibrant, good going forward, porous at the back”  stereotypes that have grown up around African football. His qualities may not be the most obvious, nor his style the easiest on the eye, but Annan is arguably – in the absence of Michael Essien – his country’s most influential player.

As the anchor in what is otherwise a relatively adventurous Ghanaian midfield, it is Annan’s positional awareness and ability to deal with runners from midfield that allows the likes of Kevin Prince-Boateng and Kwadwo Asamoah to get forward with a greater freedom. Although at 5 feet and nine inches he is hardly an imposing physical presence, Annan makes up for a lack of stature with an impressive amount of strength that is not always obvious when you first see him play. His muscularity in the tackle in combination with a sheer bloody-minded determination allows the Rosenborg man to hold his own against far larger opponents and give both his club and country a certain snap and bite (sometimes a little too literally) in the midfield.

His ability on the ball, the subtler side of his game which is all too often overlooked, was another major factor behind Ghana’s success this summer as he controlled the tempo of matches from deep, calmly linking all facets of the Ghanaian side. Both his regaining of possession and distribution of the ball were key driving forces behind the cohesion of Milovan Rajevac’s Black Stars in what was a superb tournament for the former Hearts of Oak player.

Despite being overlooked by a number of “big” club since moving to Norway – initially with IK Start before moving to Rosenborg – Annan’s performances in South Africa look to have given him an excellent chance of securing a move to one of Europe’s major leagues this summer. The player has recently expressed his desire to move to the Premier League and, with Chelsea and Manchester United rumoured to be looking at Annan, the Ghanaian talisman could have his wish granted in the very near future.

African nations hamstrung by chronic short-termism

Prior to the start of the World Cup there was much expected of the competing African nations, the likes of Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana all thought to be capable of reaching the latter stages, if not going on to become the continent’s first world champions.

However, this was an exceptionally poor tournament for the CAF representatives in South Africa, Ghana the only team to progress beyond the group phase, eventually reaching the last eight and coming within a crossbar’s width of being the first African team to ever reach the semi-finals.

But the Black Stars’ relative success must not be allowed to mask the wider failures of the African sides at the World Cup and, now that the dust has settled and the vuvuzelas fallen silent following the conclusion of the tournament, their performances should be judged with a greater objectivity.

In my opinion, if there is one lesson that should be learned from the negative experiences of the majority of the CAF nations at the World Cup, it is that African football associations should not be so hasty in their managerial appointments nor so keen to employ “big-name” European coaches in the short-term at the expense of both general stability and the prospects of suitable candidates from their own countries.

Prior to the tournament both Nigeria and Ivory Coast dismissed the coaches that had overseen the qualification process to replace them with Lars Lagerback and Sven-Goran Eriksson respectively, Scandinavian managers with significant top-level experience. However, in the case of the Super Eagles the outgoing manager, Shaibu Amodu, was himself a Nigerian – something that has been all too rare in African football in recent decades – and had been widely praised for the work he had done in negotiating the qualifying phase during what was his fourth spell in charge of the national team.

Amodu’s dismissal and subsequent demotion to his current position as coach of the Nigerian “B” team following a more than respectable third-place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in January was both a brutal and cynical action by the Nigerian Football Association. His removal not only exposed the NFA as a deeply hypocritical and base institution, it also revealed the underlying insecurity that blights football in a host of African countries, namely that they feel somehow “lesser” if their national team is not managed by a coach with at least a modicum of success in either Europe or South America.

The hiring of Lagerback and Eriksson were mere trophy appointments by football associations obsessed with the pursuit of image and reputation over the construction of a balanced environment within which a settled and group of players can grow. Their obscene wages on pitifully short contracts represent wasted money which could so easily have been ploughed into national coaching development programmes or grass-roots academies as have been established in Ghana to good effect. This current system is evidently unsustainable, an ugly form of neo-colonialism that is, albeit inadvertently, damaging the African game.

Carlos Alberto Parreira’s time in charge of South Africa had a similar feel to it, the Brazilian replacing Kagiso-born coach Pitso Mosimane in 2007 before departing for Fluminense after a year in charge only to return in 2009 to to guide the Bafana Bafana through this summer’s tournament. Such actions constantly undermine the position and reputation of African coaches in the game and, although the wish for more experienced managers is understandable, are surely stunting the production of talented and informed coaching staff across the continent.

Indeed, Cameroon, traditionally more willing to give home-grown managers a chance with the national team, are also not free from blame this time around. The Federation Camerounaise de Football’s appointment of Paul Le Guen smacked of the same chronic short-termism, although, in the interests of balance, the Frenchman did salvage the Indomitable Lions’ qualifying campaign and begin to introduce more young players into the national set-up before resigning after their exit from World Cup.

As Milovan Rajevac showed with Ghana in South Africa, a foreign coach can work effectively with African teams given the right circumstances, but that coach must be willing to involve themselves in the culture of their adopted country, be thorough in their research and scouting methods and, most importantly, be given time to build a project and fashion an efficient team model from the materials available to them over a number of years.

Perhaps the best example of sensible administration of the game at the top-level in the continent is that of Egypt, a country that has demonstrated how rewards can be reaped if home-grown managers are shown patience and allowed to grow into their role. Hassan Shehata has now been in charge of The Pharaohs since 2004 and has guided the team to three consecutive Africa Cup of Nations titles. Success can be achieved with local coaches and a degree of application, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast take note.

Short-term, quick-fix appointments will only ever hold African nations back and deprive the continent of genuinely competitive teams and fail to produce home-grown coaches with the ability to do such high-profile jobs.

The nationality of the coach is an issue, but it is not the main one, the lack of a coherent strategy from the top down in so many of Africa’s major footballing nations being the more pressing concern. If the likes of the Nigerian and Ivorian FAs don’t take this lesson on board and start to lay the foundations required to achieve their long-term ambitions then it is unlikely that their fortunes at the highest level will change any time soon.

What England can learn from the Ghanaian model of football

Ghana's U20 World Cup winners

*Just a note to say that I wrote this before tonight’s quarter-final defeat to Uruguay if the references to Ghana still being in the World Cup seem a little odd.

Following England’s limp exit from the World Cup much has been made of the relatively high average age (28.1) of Fabio Capello’s squad, with questions being asked as to the structure and effectiveness of youth football in this country and the manner in which young players are schooled in the game at the grass roots level.

As fingers continue to be pointed and blame assigned over England’s poor performances in South Africa, Ghana, the host continent’s sole remaining representative in the tournament, are giving many of the more established powers of world football a lesson in how to successfully promote and manage talented young footballers at the highest level.

The youngest team in the tournament, Ghana’s squad contains eight players aged 21 or under and has an average age fully four years below that of England. Milovan Rajevac, the Black Stars’ Serbian coach, has exceeded all expectations since his appointment in August 2008 and balanced the natural ability and enthusiasm of his players to create a coherent, disciplined and yet fluent team more than capable of succeeding on the world stage.

Already having won the U20 World Cup in 2009, reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations back in January and now in the quarter-finals of what is only the country’s second appearance at a World Cup, the Ghanaians have clearly struck upon what is both a workable and fertile formula for youth production, but what is it that they are doing right?

Arguably the major reason behind the flourishing of Ghana’s young players has been that the top level of football in the country, the GLO Premier League, has become an arena for the finest Ghanaian youth players to hone their talents. This commitment to introducing young prospects to professional football has been engendered through a combination of both willingness and necessity. The conscious cultivation of talent for the national team has been reinforced by players being poached by European teams and the Ghanaian clubs’ inability to pay competitive wages, factors which make any model other than youth development all but unworkable.

This faith in young players is borne out by Aduana Stars, the 2009/10 GLO Premier League champions, who claimed their title with an average age of just 22.4, beating Ashanti Gold – average age 21.7 – into second place. Indeed, the player voted the division’s best player this year, Mahatma Otoo, is himself just 18 and yet is already the captain of Hearts of Oak, one of the league’s traditional powerhouses, a clear illustration of the high regard with which youth players are held in Ghana.

However, this commitment to youth football is nothing new. The country won the World U17 Championships in 1991 and ’95 and was honoured by FIFA for its work with young players in 2002. A year later the Goal committee approved plans and agreed to provide half of the funds for a technical centre based in Accra which has, since its completion, trained specialists in all areas of the game, carried out significant development work in both youth and women’s football and provided the country with a national academy.

The English FA’s proposed equivalent to such a centre, the much-maligned St George’s Park complex in Burton-upon-Trent, was only approved earlier this year after eight years of delays and is still little more than a building site.

Academies in Ghana are thriving

Andy Farrant, manager of the Right to Dream football academy in Accra believes that the key to Ghana’s success with youth football is a continuity of personnel and system at all levels within the national set-up:

“Many of the players currently at the World Cup played at U17 and U20 level, gaining valuable experience of international and, more specifically, tournament football. Players in the junior national teams are generally in camp for months on end and become used to playing together in the same system and style which is used by the senior side. This consistency really helps the players to thrive at international level.”

Farrant also sees a regional mentality that places far more importance on youth international football as vital to the process:

“The commitment from the Ghana Football Association to promote young players through the ranks of the junior national team regardless of their club commitments has also made an impact. The emphasis on junior internationals in Ghana and throughout West Africa is huge, similar to representing the team at the senior level”.

With these overriding policies and attitudes in place, the Black Stars have provided a sound template for youth development programmes around the world and the shining example that Ghana has given surely deserves far greater recognition than it currently receives. The country’s FA has demonstrated that careful planning and intelligent forward-thinking can bring about positive results in the long-term, something that their English counterparts have repeatedly disregarded in their rash attempts to throw money at deep-rooted problems in the hope of finding short-term solutions.

In light of the dismal recent performances of Capello’s team, the administrative bodies of Soho Square could do far worse than imitate elements of the Ghanaian mentality and model of football organisation at all levels as they re-assess their priorities in the coming months.

Ghana show patience to reach last eight

USA 1 Ghana 2

USA: Howard; Cherundolo, DeMerit, Bocanegra, Bornstein; Donovan, Bradley, Clark (Edu 30), Dempsey; Findley (Feilhaber 46), Altidore (Gomez 91)

Ghana: Kingson; Pantsil, Jonathan Mensah, John Mensah, Sarpei (Addy 72); Annan, KP Boateng (Appiah 78); Inkoom (Muntari 113), Asamoah, Ayew; Gyan

Ghana exceeded expectations tonight in a closely-fought game which saw the Black Stars run-out 2-1 winners over Bob Bradley’s United States team in Rustenburg and progress to the quarter-finals.

4-2-3-1 vs 4-4-2

Set out in a 4-2-3-1, Milovan Rajevac made just one change to his starting line-up, Samuel Inkoom (nominally a right-back) replacing Prince Tagoe on the wing in order to give the Ghanaians a greater defensive presence when dealing with the creativity of Clint Dempsey on the American left.

Bob Bradley made a brace of changes to his eleven, Robbie Findley being drafted in for Herculez Gomez up front having returned from suspension and Ricardo Clark replacing Maurice Edu in the centre of midfield in the United States’ 4-4-2.

Patience and pressing

The first half was characterised by Ghana’s comfort and patience in possession as well as the incredibly high energy levels they maintained to press the USA high up the field and limit their opponents to very few sights of goal.

The pressure the Black Stars put the American players under paid off early on when the hapless Clark, a player who, unfortunately, looked out of his depth, was robbed of possession by Kwadwo Asamoah who set Kevin-Prince Boateng free to run at a backtracking defence before firing beyond Tim Howard.

On the half-hour Bob Bradley attempted to change the pattern of the game, bringing on Maurice Edu at the expense of Clark in order to provide better distribution of the ball and a greater attacking threat in the midfield. Although you felt sorry for Clark who suffered the humiliation of an early substitution, it was the right move from Bradley who had recognised the need to have more running from deep in order to push the Ghanaian midfield deeper, not allowing them to press so high up the pitch and disrupt the USA in possession to such an extent.

New shape for the US

As impressive as Ghana were in the first half, there were doubts as to their ability to maintain the intensity their game plan necessitated, doubts that materialised during the second period as the United States came back into the game strongly.

USA 2nd half shape

During the break Bradley brought Benny Feilhaber on for the largely ineffective Findley, the AGF Aarhus player taking up a role on the left side of midfield with Dempsey becoming the central striker in what effectively became a lopsided 4-3-3 such was the advanced position of Landon Donovan and the relative depth of Feilhaber.

The re-imagined shape prevented John Pantsil and Inkoom linking up as they had done so efficiently during the first half and forced the Black Stars to narrow drastically, the wide midfielders tucking in to leave the full-backs as the only players providing width.

Ghana also started to play from a deeper starting point, understandably making every effort to protect their lead.

As Rajevac’s side did so well before half-time, it was Bradley’s players that looked the more comfortable in possession and willing to run directly at the opposition during the second 45, their positivity leading to the Ghanaian defence becoming overrun and, ultimately, the penalty which Donovan converted to equalise.

The pattern shifts again

The remainder of the second half saw the game stretch somewhat as both teams tired and started to play on the counter-attack. However, as the match entered extra time it was Ghana that seized the initiative, counter-attacking excellently to take the lead through a tremendous Asamoah Gyan finish under pressure from both American centre-halves.

Rajevac’s team then gave a masterclass in keeping possession for the rest of the additional 30 minutes, preventing the United States from creating much in the way of coherent attacks and containing their creative players as they had done so well during the opening stages of the game.

The Black Stars become only the third African team to reach the quarter-finals of a World Cup and have done so with a display of great organisation and, when necessary, attacking vigour. As for the USA, they head home with much credit after topping Group C and having built upon the promise this group of players showed in last year’s Confederations Cup. Both of these teams have reason to be very proud of their performances in South Africa.

Socceroos hold on despite early Kewell dismissal

Ghana 1 Australia 1

Ghana: Kingson; Paintsil, Mensah, Addy, Sarpei; Annan, KP Boateng (Amoah 88); Tagoe (Owusu-Abeyie 56), Asamoah (Muntari 77), Ayew; Gyan

Australia: Schwarzer; Wilkshire (Rukavytsya 85), Neill, Moore, Carney; Culina, Valeri; Emerton, Holman (Kennedy 68), Bresciano (Chipperfield 66); Kewell

Australia impressively held out to secure a 1-1 draw against Milovan Rajevac’s Ghana in Rustenburg this afternoon despite the early sending off of Harry Kewell in an entertaining game which has left the closely-fought Group D poised for an enthralling finish next week.

Two lots of 4-2-3-1

Both sides were set up by their respective Coaches to play 4-2-3-1, matching each other across the field with the only slight differences between the systems being that Ghana’s wide midfielders were slightly more advanced and their second holding midfielder, Kevin-Prince Boateng, was given more license to get forward and create.

The main question surrounding the Australian selection was whether Pim Verbeek should have opted to play physical target-man Josh Kennedy up against the inexperienced Ghanaian centre-half pairing of Jonathan Mensah and Lee Addy, or perhaps two out-and-out strikers rather than again choosing to deploy an attacking midfielder – Harry Kewell – in the centre-forward role.

The early stages of the game played out much as expected, both teams mirroring each other in the midfield and failing to find much penetration, but the pattern of the game was altered when Richard Kingson’s error from Mark Bresciano’s free-kick allowed Brett Holman to steal in and put Australia ahead.

Ghana reacted surprisingly positively to going behind so early in the tie, instantly showing a greater intensity and willingness to get forward after a sluggish start. Kwadwo Asamoah upped his work-rate in his role as the Black Stars’ playmaker and Andre Ayew started to cut in off his wing to regularly test the Australian full-backs with his pace and skill as Rajevac’s side pushed hard to get straight back into the game.

It was as a direct result of one of Ayew’s forays into the inside right channel that Ghana were presented with the opportunity to equalise, the Marseille midfielder riding two or three Australian challenges to cut the ball back for Jonathan Mensah whose shot was prevented from crossing the line by the arm of Harry Kewell. Kewell was dismissed by referee Robert Rosetti and Asamoah Gyan converted the resulting spot-kick to restore parity.

Dismissal brings change

Australia after introduction of Kennedy

Kewell’s sending-off saw Verbeek change his team’s shape to a 4-5-0/4-4-1, Brett Holman often the furthest man forward with Bresciano and Brett Emerton making every effort to support him in attack breaking from midfield.

In adapting their system to cater for losing a player the Australians sacrificed much of possession, the West Africans looking far more dangerous for the remainder of the half and looking much more comfortable on the ball.

However, after the interval the Socceroos began to play their way back into the fixture having soaked up a great deal of Ghanaian pressure, Luke Wilkshire and David Carney pushing on from full-back to support the increasingly adventurous midfield.

The introduction of Scott Chipperfield for Bresciano gave Australia extra pace and natural width down the left side, something which troubled a slightly out-of-sorts John Paintsil, but it was Brett Holman’s replacement, Kennedy, who tipped the game back in the favour of Verbeek’s side.

The Kennedy factor

The Nagoya Grampus forward was used as the focal point of the Australian attack after coming on with 20 minutes to go, keeping Addy and Mensah occupied, exposing their flaws and forcing the Ghanaian system to become far narrower in the face of a 4-4-1 with the wide midfielders tucked in behind a target man.

Such was Kennedy’s impact that it seemed strange that Verbeek had not selected him from the outset, the striker’s presence forcing the Black Stars to change their defensive approach to such an extent that they appeared to lose their passing rhythm, giving the ball away in midfield with more regularity after Emerton and Chipperfield had come infield and crowded the area where Ghana had dominated all afternoon.

Indeed, it was Australia that enjoyed the best of the late chances, Wilkshire denied by a superb Richard Kingson save as the Antipodeans played with more freedom towards the end of the game. In fact the final minutes of the game were some of the most entertaining as Ghana finally pushed hard to exploit their one-man advantage, Paintsil and Hans Sarpei bombing forward from full-back to get in behind the Australian defence at serious risk of being caught out on the counter-attack.

Rajevac attempted to freshen up his attacking options in the dying minutes, but Sulley Muntari and Matthew Amoah failed to make an impact having been brought on to overrun the Socceroos’ midfield and support Gyan in testing the back line, Verbeek ensuring his team saw out a period of late pressure to come away with a point they will be more than happy with considering the circumstances.

Group D in the balance

Ghana will be hugely disappointed that they didn’t capitalise on their opponents’ shortage of personnel despite having much of the play, but this was an admirable performance with10 men from an Australia side that deserves an awful lot of credit for their resolute display and willingness to get forward even when handicapped by the Kewell sending-off.

The Black Stars now need a point against Germany in their final game of the group on Wednesday to guarantee progression to the last 16, with the Australians having to beat a strong Serbia side and rely on the other result going their way for them to have a chance of qualifying. Group D, seen as the toughest in the competition by many, could hardly be more finely-balanced going into the deciding round of fixtures.