After losing to Brazil last Friday, the Black Stars of Ghana defeated Nicaragua at the Estadio Francisco Artes Carrasco, and the head coach was delighted.
Otto Addo, who was quoted after the loss to Brazil, stated that he was the single person responsible for the team’s dreadful initial approach in the game.
Otto Addo, the head coach, made eight changes to his starting lineup against Brazil last Friday, and he demoted the Ayew brothers from the starting lineup last Tuesday night in Spain.
He introduced new players such as Ofori in goal, Seidu Alidu ahead of Dennis Odoi at right back, Gideon Mensah ahead of Baba Rahman at left-back, Iñaki Williams ahead of Afena-Gyan, Salisu ahead of Djiku in central defence, Daniel Kyereh in place of Jordan Ayew, Osman Bukari in place of Ayew in midfield, and Fatawu Issahaku.
The changes to the team are a decision made by the coach since, as he said in a press conference ahead of the game, “We are using these matches to try a lot of things—not only the players but also systems. We have to find it together. This is very important for us as a team. We have new players to integrate — a whole lot of things, and I also want to use these games to give players a platform to show themselves.”
Fatawu Issahaku scored the goal at the 35-minute mark. Ghana dominated the game and produced several scoring chances, but was unable to score against Nicaragua.
In a post-game press conference, the coach expressed his delight that the squad was able to create more scoring chances, and he confessed that the team could have scored more than the recorded tally last Tuesday night.
In response to the slim defeat over a non-performing country like Nicaragua, the 2006 World Cup respondent indicated, “Sometimes games like this happen and trust me, I have played against lower ranking teams or weaker amateur clubs, and we have even lost those games. I am delighted that we created so many chances.”
