The Ghana Black Stars are like an orphan who has no parental care. From head to toe never worked as a team to get any good position in the ongoing Afcon in the Ivory Coast. The black stars never won possession in any of their matches. All goals scored against the Black Stars were unpardonable. There is nothing wrong with an early shower of Black Stars.
The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 kicked off on Sunday evening, and the Black Stars of Ghana were devastated when substitute Garry Mendes Rodriguez scored a late goal to give Cape Verde a 1-2 victory and all three points at the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny stadium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Richard Ofori stopped Mendez from winning all three points for Cape Verde in the 83rd minute. But he would not be stopped, as the Ghanaian goalkeeper and his defense misjudged a play, allowing him to score in the 92nd minute from close range.
The defeat drops the Stars to the third of Group B, while Cape Verde advances to the top of the group with three maximum points, one point clear of Egypt and Mozambique, who drew 2-2. The shock also means that in their last 8 AFCON games, the Black Stars have only triumphed once.
With most of the match being played in the Black Stars’ half, Cape Verde looked fair value for their one-goal lead at the end of the first half. Their dominance was duly rewarded when midfielder Jamiro Monteiro scored a close-range goal after goalie Richard Ofori, who was playing in his first competitive football match of the season after losing his job at the club, parried a long-range effort. The Black Stars’ defense did not react to the save as quickly as Monteiro did, and in the 17th minute, he scored with a low left-footed shot.
The Black Stars made an effort to reply, with winger Joseph Paintsil at the centre of things, but referee Jean-Jacques Ngambo Ndala waved away their requests for a penalty. After a solid buildup involving Jordan Ayew and Gideon Mensah, Hamburg SV’s Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer had another chance in the 26th minute, but his tame shot went wide, continuing a first half in which the Ghanaian-born German looked isolated from his team in what was his first competitive game for the national team.
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