For Antoine Semenyo, it was not so much a case of wrapped up in cotton wool but rather enveloped in a grey Ghana tracksuit. A couple of weeks out from their World Cup opener against Panama in Toronto, they are in no position to take risks and so the Manchester City forward was rested in this friendly against Wales. He was one of the last players to join up with the squad at their base in Newport, his old stomping ground and where he spent six months on loan as a teenager.
Ghana thought they would fly to Washington on Wednesday for a training camp with a victory finally under their belts, England, their second Group L opponents this summer, soon in their sights. After five straight friendly defeats since qualifying for the World Cup last October, they had to settle for a draw in Carlos Queiroz’s first game in charge after Lewis Koumas headed in a stoppage-time equaliser.
“I believe with the next programme of 10 days of training sessions, we will make a lot of progress and be much more consistent,” said an upbeat but realistic Queiroz. “The win was in our pocket, but it’s time to learn. When we are winning 1-0, there’s no way that we can let the win escape from our pocket, but unfortunately it happens.”
Presumably Thomas Tuchel, five hours behind Cardiff in time-zone, hunkered down somewhere in West Palm Beach to watch. If Tuchel had the sound on, he wouldn’t have needed to listen too hard to hear the Ghana supporters present delight in the substitute Caleb Yirenkyi’s second-half opener, but they were denied victory when Koumas glanced in Neco Williams’s superb cross.
Craig Bellamy’s verdict on Ghana cut to the chase. “You have a tough group, a new manager,” the Wales head coach said, replying to a question from a Ghanaian journalist. “You’re a dangerous team in transition because of the speed you always have in the top line. Your first game is Panama … Your tournament is going to be decided by that game. If you win one game, you might get into the knockout stage. Croatia and England are going to be two really difficult games … the way you support your team, you never know.”
For the noisy Ghanaian contingent that tried to turn this into something of an occasion – only Wales’s second against African opponents and the first since a 4-0 defeat in Tunisia in 1998 – there was little to whet the appetite for when the real thing begins until Yirenkyi’s strike midway through the second half. For Queiroz, though, this was a significant contest, this not only his first game in the job, but potentially his last before their opener. Ghana may yet organise a friendly to enhance their preparations in the US.
“One training session is better than zero, two better than one, three better than two,” Queiroz said afterwards with a smile. “We will do as much work as possible before the first game against Panama. We have to be very straightforward, have cooperation, an open mind and heart to improve and progress. It’s not time to make big changes, it’s time to tune what they have been doing well and make things better.”
The Portuguese said he had no qualms over naming Thomas Partey, now of Villarreal, in his 26-man squad. Partey is due to stand trial next year after pleading not guilty to seven charges of rape and one count of sexual assault relating to allegations by four different women between 2020 and 2022. Queiroz handed the former Arsenal midfielder a start here and, in truth, if this was not a friendly the Swedish referee, Oscar Johnson, may have sent off Partey before the interval. The 32-year-old was booked for a foul on Dan James, who twice hit the woodwork in the first half, but escaped further punishment after scything down an advancing David Brooks on the edge of the area.
Queiroz conceded he and Ghana will have to learn on the job. Ghana are without their first-choice centre-back partnership and Mohammed Kudus this summer through injury. Jerome Opoku, the London-born defender, put it succinctly afterwards. “I think the key word is time: with the amount of time we’ve been together, to be able to put that performance out there it shows with more time we can only get better,” said Opoku, sitting alongside Queiroz, appointed to succeed Otto Addo in April. “Thank you, see you at the World Cup,” the 73-year-old said as he left the room.
