It has
always been a mysterious turn of events when you throwback on some of the shocking
moments various Ghanaian national teams lose the opportunity to win silverware by
way of penalty shootouts.
Many
Ghanaians have grown to accept the notion that having a go from 12-yards is a
thing of luck and not necessarily skill. However, that is not the case in many
football inclined countries who have actually realized scoring goals from
penalty kicks go beyond luck. Indeed, there is the natural skill and ability
involved in improvising yourself for the perfect kick to win a match.
To delve
even further, personal study and observation has revealed that penalty kicks go
way beyond skill or luck. In fact, in the case of Ghana national teams, the
main problem has to do with the general mentality of Ghanaians that “we are not
good in penalty shootout.”
Until such a
negative mentality is taken out of our system and ideology, Ghana may never be
able to win any major trophy by way of penalty kicks. It must however be
recalled that the most successful attempt at winning an international trophy
via penalties in recent years has been the Andre Ayew-led Black Satellite side
that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009.
A year
later, some of those youngsters got themselves playing with the Black Stars at
the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and shockingly failed to carry that same winning
mentality to the team when the opportunity arrived through the “lottery” from
12-yards against Uruguay.
It has
always been a sad memory when parents and grandparents narrate how Ghana Black
Stars played a marathon of penalties against Ivory Coast in AFCON 1992 which
the Ivorians were the eventual victors on the day. The feeling gets even worst
when you grow up to witness the Black Stars lose to the same Ivory Coast team on
penalties after leading twice in the shootout in 2015.
Some Ghanaian
football fanatics console themselves with the mediocre mentality that losing on
penalties is normal, about luck and nothing to be worried about. Like seriously?
If it is really about luck, why are the Black Stars almost always not lucky enough
to have added at least two more AFCON trophies to their cabinet since their
last one in 1982 in Libya?
Over the
years, we have heard a lot of people suggest that the act of kicking a ball from
the penalty spot should be taught right from teenage footballers and colts
teams across the country so they mature with the skill and be essential for the
national teams in the near future. Of course it is a laudable idea which
unsurprisingly has not been implemented simply because in our part of the
world, we talk more than we put to action.
The truth
is; until the football fraternity and country as a whole do away with the
inferiority complex and mediocrity with respect to penalty kicks, we may never
lift a trophy through that instance no matter how many talented and skillful
players we parade at tournaments.
It is about
time all the national teams get proper sports psychologists who will psych up
the players mentally to see penalty kicks as an easy opportunity to put the
ball in the net rather than a herculean task. Having the right kind of
mentality goes a long way to climb the ladder of success in any field of work.
The
disappointment the national teams bring to Ghanaian football lovers is
incredibly huge as you get to hear people from all ages talking about it several
days and months after various tournaments.
The new football
leadership setup of the country have been instrumental in rekindling the love
Ghanaians have for the national teams with the campaign message
#BringBackTheLove but the performances of the Black Stars and Black Meteors in
recent days have rather taken away a bit of string from the love and passion.
As an admirer
of Ghana football, one can only hope and believe that there’s an intentional
scientific and psychological way of eradicating the losing mentality and
embracing the “can do” spirit even from the penalty spot.
