2014 World Cup: We need tall players to deal with aerial threats, says Ghana coach

Published on: 22 June 2014
2014 World Cup: We need tall players to deal with aerial threats, says Ghana coach
Ghana have lost several aerial challenges at the 2014 World Cup

By Ameenu Shardow

Follow on Twitter @alooameenu

Coach Kwesi Appiah believes the Ghana team needs tall players to deal with their vulnerability to aerial balls - a weakness displayed by his team on a number of occasions at the 2014 World Cup.

The Black Stars once more again conceded a goal through a floated ball into its danger area in the thrilling 2-2 draw with Germany on Saturday.

The team suffered from a similar frailty in their shocking 2-1 defeat to the United States in their opening Group G game.

Ghana's defence has been very fragile to long balls despite having decent heights in Jonathan Mensah and John Boye – the two central defenders of the Black Stars.

World Cup rookie John Brooks capitalized on this weakness to head in USA's winner in the opening clash.

Mario Goetze ghosted in behind to nod in Germany's opener off a high ball in the thrilling 2-2 draw on Saturday as did Miroslav Klose who used this frailty to his advantage to tap in an earlier won aerial challenge by the Germans to fetch the equalizer.

The Ghana trainer has acknowledged this deficiency in his team and says perhaps he should be looking to select tall players in future to deal with this threat which has proved to be Ghana's downfall at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“That was one of the major concerns when we were planning our tactics against the Germans,” Appiah said.

“Most of them are really tall and they used it very well.

“Our boys really did well but we unfortunately gave one goal away through high balls.

“Unfortunately Ghanaians are not born tall so maybe next time we will get taller players in the team.”

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