Hi, I am a huge Ghana soccer fan and I think I could help clear up a few issues while hopefully getting some contacts who directly watch Freddy Adu in the MLS which I am interested in. (as I am with all soccer). Firstly let me start by saying that the USA team at the moment is a far better side than the Ghanaian team at men's level as the last world cup showed. I am not myopic when it comes to my team. Ghana have however got pedigree in both men's ( African Nations Cup winner 1963, winner 65, winner 78, winner 82 and finalists in 92, semis in 96 joint leaders with Egypt and Cameroon). I think the CONCACAF equivalent is the Gold Cup, and youth (World U-17 winner 91, winner 93, winner 95, finalists 97, semis 99 and World U-20 finalists 1993 and 2001). An interesting quick point is that at the 1999(97?) U-17 Ghana and the USA finished 3rd and 4th respectively. USA had the brilliant young talents Da Marcus Beasley (Silver Ball) and Landon Donavan (Golden Ball) in their team, while Ghana had the tournaments top scorers in Ishmael Addo (Maccabi Netanya, Israel, 4 times Ghana goal king and African champions League winner ) and Don Bortey (still with Hearts of Oak recently disposed Ghana champions). Ghana has VERY GOOD youth development policies which is why they sustain a decent level of success and have many good regular players in Europe: Adjei - HOK(African champions league winner) (GHA) John Mensah - Modena(Italy) Sam Kuffour - Bayern Munich (Ger) Christian Gyan - Feyenoord (Hol) E.Addo - PSV(HOL) Appiah - Juventus(ITA) Essien - Lyon (FRA) D.Boateng - AIK (SWE) Muntari - Udinese (ITA) Boakye - Bielefeld (Ger div 2 but 13 goals in 21 games) I.Addo - Netanya (Israel) This is what our first team might look like if we were as organised (and as rich!) as you guys! The problem Ghana has is illustrated by the fact that your 2 star players still play in your own league (Donavan and Beasley). I cannot tell you the blessing that is. This would never happen in Ghana due to the disparity in wages between the Ghanaian league and any league in Europe. (Including Eastern European leagues). Do you remember what happened to Donavan at Leverkusen even though he was the best young player in the world? Thankfully he had a well paying league to go back to and showed his ability at 2002. Dan Addo a Ghanaian player who was a star at World U17 1991 also went to Leverkusen, didn't play, but unlike Donavan become 'stuck' if you see what I mean. Anthony Yeboah(1993) and Abedi Pele(1992) were the first African internationals to be in the World top 10. (I am not counting Eusebio as he was born and raised in Mozambique with parents also born there but played for Portugal as part of colonization!?) I thought this might give a better idea of the football 'culture' Adu came from. I have followed the Adu discussions keenly but have been a little disappointed with some of the comments about Ghana having no practice pitches and so on, this is where your boy got the basics!!! Street football between 5 -15 is quite important which is why for example the French are fairly keen on recruiting from the sections of their society whose kids still have those type of habits Immigrants children from Italy(Platini), Senegal(Viera), Spain (Lizarazu), Trezeguet (born in France, Argentinian dad, trained in Argentina) - It is often suggested that the 'indigenous' French (if that is PC enough) are not that bothered themselves!!. Ghana youth soccer is organised but your men's team is far superior, I really admire the work done with the USA since 1990. I know some people will say that Ghana age cheats at youth level but technique is good and that is not really affected by age. Also alot of the Euro commentators who make these comments ignore the social factors that affect youngsters who change continents to play soccer after these youth tournaments finish, which as USA fans I am sure you will understand given Landon Donavan's ludicrous treatment. World cup qualification has always been a problem for us. Games are sparse 1 every 1 or 2 months and not in sync with Europe where unfortunately most of our players play. Basically our team ( and our FA has to take responsibility for some of this) doesn't play regular friendlies like the US do so cohesion levels are poor even with players who play for top Euro clubs. Again I am sure you have noticed some problems with returnees from Europe and team cohesion during WC qualifiers, now imagine you had less resources and so you mulitiply the lack of cohesion by ten!!! I am waffling now so I will finish by saying, best of luck to Adu because he is very young so if he wants to play for the USA, fine. Plus I think (and I am sure after reading this you will agree) Ghana needs to concentrate on what it has because it is not really player quality that is the problem, although no one would turn up their nose at Adu I guess. Put simply I can't even see Ghana flying him out to games given jet lag, club commitments etc it seems stupid given that we have players who in theory are of a similar standard to Beasley and Donavan (who are very good) and they are WC 1/4 finalists. Kudos USA and Ghana!!
Mods Note: Removed full quote for immediately preceding post. Unnecessary as you can see the original right up there! interesting post.Thanks
Someone in Ghana's federation seems to disagree with you. Note that we have the actual Beasley and Donovan, and we'll still probably have Freddy getting a chance with the Nats before he turns 17. That's not to say that Ghana would start Freddy immediately either, but the federation would never ignore someone with his talent to focus on other problems. You'd fly him in for WCQ if he was one of your top 18, just like we'd fly Mathis and Cherundolo in from Germany to LA for a critical game.
Hello Casper, I'm not sure I completely follow your point or that you get mine. I am saying that the US's much more measured approach allows them to make objective decisions, like whether it is actually worth flying Mathis in, in the first place. The US federation and club coaches are objective which is why Freddy is on the bench. Ghana are guilty of total hysteria when it comes to anything linked to Ghana that isn't actually in Ghana, we always assume that a player is 100 times better because somebody else (usually in Europe) fancies him whereas the US rate Beasley as top player (correctly) whether he plays in Europe or not. This is why Mathis is called back as he is a top USA player and a regular part of the team, period. Ghana's problems will not be solved by Adu, the team never practices and has no pattern, there is no way he could operate, he is 14. We have to do the basics first, get our current squad (which as I have said man for man is probably a world cup 2nd round team or better) and practice. Casper, don't you think it betrays a lack of self confidence for a nation with a soccer record such as Ghana's to chase a 14 YEAR OLD 9-14 hours away when it is clearly difficulties with organising the trips of foreign based players that causes our problems in the first place!!! Kudos USA & Ghana.
I don't think it betrays a lack of self confidence. I think it means that they want a talented player, who clearly has the potential to be good enough to play for ANYONE's national team (including Ghana's) one day, to ultimately play for Ghana when he's ready. Putting myself in their shoes - let's say a US-born prospect moves to, say, Holland at age 9. Is eligible to play for Holland because they have a Dutch parent. Gets good enough to play for the Dutch National Team. I'd be desperate for the USSF to try to get this kid to play for the US, because to have made it that far, he must be pretty good. If I were a Ghana fan, I'd be much angrier at the federation if they failed to try to recruit Adu, than if they just didn't try. All of your criticisms of their organizational skills are probably perfectly valid. I hope they improve. But they should be trying to both improve their organization and get the best players on the field. Recruiting Freddy doesn't mean they can't also try to get better at bringing in their Europe-based players. My original point was really confined to,"It's not stupid for them to try to recruit Adu. It would be stupid for them NOT to try." Your point seems to be that they show their stupidity in lots of other ways, and need to improve. I'll take your word for it. Doesn't mean they shouldn't try to recruit a talented player, even if he plays in DC, or even farther away. I don't think they're dedicating all of their resources to the Freddy hunt to the exclusion of getting their act together.