“Nice issues are usually not achieved by impulse, however by a collection of small issues introduced collectively.”
The phrases of Vincent van Gogh, the famend Dutch Publish-Impressionist painter, encapsulate the essence of the seemingly unimportant particulars in reaching one thing better.
Reaching greatness takes time, effort, and a focus to element. Sadly, it appears Ghana is but to understand this realisation.
“The reality of the matter is that the Soccer Affiliation doesn’t personal gamers. The golf equipment are chargeable for the registration of their gamers. What the Soccer Affiliation does is simply depend on gamers which were registered by the golf equipment to symbolize Ghana, and due to this fact, when you’ve gotten such a problem, it is rather troublesome to regulate,” Ghana Soccer Affiliation President Kurt Okraku advised SuperSport in an interview again in 2023.
This assertion from Okraku got here a yr after the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) banned Ghana from competing within the subsequent two editions of the U-17 Girls’s World Cup African qualifiers attributable to age fraud. And but, it stays the one official communication Ghanaians have obtained from the FA since that devastating information.
The nationwide U-17 girls’s workforce, the Black Maidens, is meant to function step one for nationwide workforce expertise within the conveyor belt of abilities for the ladies’s nationwide groups.
However Ghana’s exclusion from U-17 feminine soccer on the elite stage signifies that the following three units of younger soccer abilities will miss that essential first step of workforce constructing and expertise that the U-17 stage is supposed to supply.
Ghana’s painful exit from the continued FIFA U-20 Girls’s World Cup in Colombia solely underscores the significance of correct workforce growth, significantly on the youth stage.
Admittedly, the workforce’s historical past of group stage exits previously six tournaments didn’t encourage a lot hope for a greater final result this time round.
Nonetheless, Basigi gave Ghanaians hope by way of their efficiency, however when it mattered most, this nationwide U-20 girls’s workforce, the Black Princesses, had been a shadow of themselves all through the match, struggling defeats of their first two video games earlier than ultimately exiting on the group stage.
These performances had been shockingly uncharacteristic of a workforce led by Yusif Basigi, who had gained each the WAFU Championships and the African Video games throughout the previous yr.
Most anticipated them to construct on these successes—nevertheless it wasn’t to be.
The disappointing final result raises critical questions in regards to the high quality of their preparation. However extra telling is the realisation that this workforce is barely the primary of three teams who may undergo from the absence of competitors on the U-17 stage throughout their developmental years.
This match marked the primary time any member of the Black Princesses had skilled world elite competitors.
In distinction, earlier groups had the advantage of U-17 expertise to arrange them for the challenges forward. The inexperience was obtrusive, manifesting in nervous, error-strewn performances—unmistakable indicators of stage fright and lack of publicity.
This match was the primary time any member of the Black Princesses had skilled world elite competitors, versus earlier groups who had the advantage of experiencing that at U-17 stage.
In consequence, the inexperience was palpable, giving strategy to uncharacteristic performances riddled with many particular person errors. Such unlucky recurring patterns level on to inexperience and stage fright.
To double down on the failures of the Soccer Affiliation, the workforce additionally endured their first time at a world competitors with no psychologist.
Reviews of workforce morale plummeting past the management of the technical workforce after their shock defeat to Austria solely emphasise the significance of psychological help in high-pressure tournaments.
A well-run affiliation that plans completely would have anticipated the immense psychological toll such a match may tackle the gamers, particularly provided that this was their first time on such a stage. However not the GFA.
Ghana wants to grasp that expertise alone is now not sufficient in trendy elite competitions. Correct, deliberate planning is required, right down to the tiniest element.
The results of administrative neglect on the U-17 stage are actually impacting expertise growth on the U-20 stage, and if nothing adjustments, the consequences may seep into the senior girls’s workforce, the Black Queens.
Is it an excessive amount of to ask for correct planning?