Ghana vs Namibia – LiveBlog

Ghana 1-0 Namibia

Agogo 40′

Group A
Date: Thursday, 24 January
Time: 1930 GMT
Location: Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra

This might not be pretty. Namibia lost their opening game 5-1 against Morocco and now face another drubbing at the hands of Ghana. After Muntari’s late winner against Guinea and with a full stadium cheering on the Black Stars, it could be a long evening for the Brave Warriors.

FULL-TIME The Brave Warriors live up to their name with an impressive effort but Ghana get the win, if not the performance, they wanted.

90+ Hans Sarpei unleashes a viscious shot but Mbaha dives, saves and holds. I didn’t know Sapei had that in him.

3 minutes of stoppage time to be played.

89′ Both teams fighting for every ball as the clock runs down. Essien just lost possession but chased the ball down and won it back.

86′ Ayew beats the right back with a few twists but then tries one of those left foot behind right foot “rabona” thingies. Wrong time and place Ayew.

85′ Collins Benjamin goes close for Namibia with a low long-range shot. Ghana fans must be running low on fingernails right about now.

83′ Brendell off, Shatumine (sp?) on for Namibia.

82′ Ghana have a free kick in right hand corner. Ref makes them wait for the whistle while he checks the distance of the wall. Very particular this ref.

80′ Ayew dribbles through a couple of players but can’t get his shot away. I like this kid.

76′ Essien brought down again. Namibia seem to have mistaken Essien for the game ball.

75′ Namibian corner falls to Collins Benjamin in a crowded box and he shoots just inches wide. Namibia could pull this off.

74′ Brendell down injured, but his keeper reminds him that Namibia are losing and they really should get on with it.

72′ Ghana have a free kick and could do with a second goal. Because Namibia are not lying down.

69′ Abeyie is now on the right wing, Ayew on the left. Seems Le Roy is trying out this new set-up with Kingston suspended against Morocco. Kingston must be gutted. His two bookings were for time-wasting againts Guinea and taking a free kick too early against Namibia! You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t, as Bart Simpson once said.

68′ Brendell again! He fired wide when he should have squared it to the open Besster. Maybe Brendelll agrees that he’s Namibia’s best hope for a goal?

67′ Brendeell gets on the end of a nice one-two and fires only just over. He looks their best hope for a goal.

66′ A. Gyan looks unhappy. Not so much at being substituted, more at his failure to score one of the 8 million chances he had.

64′ Kingston off for Andre Ayew and Asomoah Gyan off for Baffour Gyan,.

62′ Essien nutmegs Collins Benjamin and makes a surge up the field. Namibia stop him the only way possibe and bring him down.

59′ More stepovers from Owusu-Abeyie. He’s like early Cristiano Ronaldo in that he does the tricks but then goes nowhere.

58′ Didn’t realise until the JumpTV commentator just said it, but the phrase “Ghana lead through a Junior Agogo goal” is fantastic.

56′ Gyan does some flickery and trickery to confuse Namibia’s defenders. His shot is deflected for a corner.

54′Gyan wins a free-kick on the edge of the box. Somehow Kingston is booked, for taking the kick too early. He’ll miss the game against Morocco and does not look happy about it.

51′ Namibia have their first corner of the day. But Ghana head it clear.

48′ Muntari tries a repeat of his wonder goal against Guinea, but this one ends up in the stands.

I’m still hoping to see Andre Dede Ayew today.

45′ We’re underway again. No subs.

Players are back out. Saw some geat footage of all the ball boys having their photo taken with Le Roy at half time.

HALF-TIME Ghana having the same old problems scoring, but at least have a 1-0 lead. Any predictions for a final score? I’m going 3-1.

43′ Abeyie does some riverdancing on the ball. I’m thinking at 1-0 up after all the possession they’ve had Ghana should be trying to score, not dance.

Replay of the goal shows Michael Essien’s pass to set Owusu-Abeyie down the right is pure class. Abeyie does well to cross low as well. Think low crosses might be the way to go for Ghana.

40′ GOAL! finally. Agogo scores with one of those cute inside of the left foot back-flicks. Not sure how else to describe it. That move needs a name. “The Agogo” maybe ?

38′ Gyan burns Pienaar down the right, Pienaar not having a good night. Ghana could do with a big striker to get on the end of all the crosses. Does Peter Crouch have any Ghanaian heritage?

30′ Kingston puts Gyan through, keeper comes out, ball falls to Gyan with a now open goal and.. he.. puts it wide over. This is the Guinea game all over again.

25′ Agogo nutmegs Pienaar in the corner so Pienaar brings him down. Just outside the area. Freekick is wasted as Gyan is called for pushing in the box.

23′ Gyan meets a nice Laryea Kingston cross at the far post but heads wide. Also gets a wack in the head from a Namibian defender, but looked like an accidental clash. The Accra crowd are getting anxious.

19′ Namibia break and Brendell (who scored against Morocco) shoots just wide. I wouldn’t bet against Namibia scoring today. But I would wouldn’t bet against them scoring less then Ghana either. [Now I'm confused. Basically they might score, but Ghana will score more.]

18′ Agogo does a bit of keepty-uppy through the Namibia defence and shoots just wide. That would have been some goal.

16′ They do have Plaatjies though, who gets a decent left footed shot on target. Kingson saves though.

15′ Namibia have a free-kick in Beckham territory. But no Beckham.

13′ Great slide tackle from Namibia’s no. 3 (Torombo?) to take the ball from Agogo in the box. I love a bit of well-timed defending.

11′ Owusu-Abeyie has a low shot saved by Mbaham.

7′ Gyan with either a bicycke or a scissor kick. Hard to tell, but it was acrobatic. Straight at teh the keeper though. All Ghana so far.

6′ Sulley Muntari’s hallowed left foot overhits a corner. So his left foot isn’t always magical.

5′ Essien hits the corner flag with a long pass. Maybe he’s just proving he can do that if he wants. “Put it where you want it” and all that.

Lineups:

Ghana: Kingson, Addo, Mensah, Pantsil, Sarpei, Essien, Kingston, Agogo, Gyan, Muntari, Owusu-Abeyie

Namibia: Mbaham Gariseb, Pienaar, Toromba, Benjamin, Brendell, Jacobs, Ngatjizeko, Plaatjies, Risser, Bester

0′ Kick off. Namibia start with the ball, just like they wanted.

-Namibia win the toss and ask for the ball. Ref says no (meanie) and asks them to choose a side instead. Looks like the captains have sorted it between them though.

-Good news is that John Pantsil is OK. Not only is he OK he’s playing today. Ghana are fielding the exact same eleven that started against Guinea. Full starting line ups to follow as soon as I find somewhere to ctrlX and ctrlV from.

-Close ups of players as national anthems are sung. Richard Kingson has a strange bandage on his neck, not sure where that’s from.

-I want to be in Accra!

-Here come the teams. The Ghana fans are passing round one of those giant flags, atmosphere looks great again.

-Good news from earlier is that the grass at the Ohene Djan stadium has been cut. Hopefully that will let Ghana play some of that nice passing football Claude Le Roy was talking about. Three cheers for lawn-mowers!

-Not sure what to be pulling for here. Would like to see Ghana do well, host nation, cheering crowds etc, but also don’t want Namibia embarrassed again. The team’s been through a lot with coach Ben Bamfuchile passing away and all.

-Wow, Group A just got very interesting after Guinea’s 3-2 win over Morocco. Both those guys are now on three points so Ghana can pull away from the pack with a win here.

Preview

The Big Picture Ghana vs Guinea. Black Stars vs Brave Warriors. Group A. Accra. 19:30 kick-off.

Ghana have three points from their late win over Guinea and will expect another three here. Namibia have zero points after the 5-1 footballing lesson they got from Morocco and will do well just to keep the score down.

Scout Report – Ghana
The Black Stars didn’t really establish the passing game they’re known for in the opening game against Guinea and Claude Le Roy blamed the pitch. Well we’re back on that same pitch today so Le Roy better hope the incoherent performance against Guinea was just opening day nerves. More worrying was their crazy finishing. Sulley Muntari didn’t have any trouble when he hit this with his left peg. He looked like the only player with his boots on the right way round. Everyone else, including starting strikers Junior Agogo and Asamoah Gyan were wasting chances literally left, right and center. Will be interesting to see if Le Roy sticks with them or tries a different combo up top. One bright spot was the form of young Andre Dede Ayew, who looked lively down the left flank when he replaced Quincy Owusu Abeyie for the last twenty minutes or so against Guinea. I’d love to see Dede unleashed on Namibia’s defence today.

The one doubt is John Pantsil, who suffered a concussion in the win over Guinea. He apparently doesn’t remember the first half against Guinea and has been flown to Nigeria for an MRI. Hope he’s OK.

Team Blog: Visit Inara at the Ghana blog.

Scout Report – Namibia
Well it can’t get any worse, right? Namibia were horrible in the game against Morocco. Two down after four minutes and so outclassed that they settled on fouling as the best form of defence. Star man Collin Benjamin was deployed wide on the right against Morocco where he failed to keep up with Tarik Sektioui. He’ll likely play centrally today to combat Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari. Good luck to him.

Team Blog: We don’t have one, but get in touch if you’re up for the challenge.

Streams: Try here or read this.

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