The Black Stars of Ghana failed to win against Ethiopia during the penultimate group match on Thursday as Getaneh Kebede struck in the 72nd minute to cancel Andre Ayew’ss 22nd minute free-kick.
Here are the five major taking points of the game from a SPORTSWorldGhana.com perspective.
1.Black Stars switched off completely after taking the lead
The Ghana team did not look like they wanted to win the game with more goals as they failed to create enough opportunities and after taking the lead the hunger was not there.
2.Andre Ayew shows class
21 goals for Ghana in 98 games. Andre Ayew continues to remind everyone about the height of his influence on the Black Stars with a superb free-kick that put Ghana ahead in the 22nd minute at the Orlando stadium.
The big players always step up when they are needed the most and Andre was there for Ghana.
3.Joseph Wollacott was excellent
The Swindon Town Number 1 made a number of quality saves throughout the match and if he continues like this it is obvious he will be the first choice at the AFCON.
There was nothing he could do to stop the Ethiopia equalizer.
4.Ethiopia created too many dangerous opportunities
The number of saves Wollacott made especially in the first and the fact that Ethiopia hit the woodwork in the 57th minute through Bekele – before the 72nd minute equalizer – exposed the weakness in the Ghana team and Ethiopia leveler was well deserved.
With Idrisu Baba as the only natural midfielder , the Black Stars midfield was weakened against that of the opponents and Ghana were caught in between the lines too many times as Andre Ayew, Mohammed Kudus did not offer the needed support to the Mallorca man.
Milo responded to this weakness by taking off striker Boakye Yiadom for Mubarak Wakaso to join the game at the hour mark but Ethiopia went ahead to get their goal.
5.A serious lack of character from the Black Stars
This was a game in which the result, a win, mattered more than the performance and yet the Black Stars produce neither of the two. The character was not there. Ethiopia were as good as Ghana in 90 minutes.
The performance was average and even after taking the lead Milovan Rajevac and his players failed to win.
Ghana now are on 10 points alongside South Africa who play at home against Zimbabwe later tonight. No matter the outcome of that match, the Ghana – South Africa on November 14th will be the ultimate group decider.
