Ghana has an attitude or rather altitude problem.As the Black Stars,the national football team prepares for FIFA World Cup in South Africa a few days hence,all their preparation till they landed in South Africa yesterday was mostly on low-lying terrain instead of the altitude they will be playing at.
What is wrong with this?The problem is that we might have lost a strategic and crucial edge in the preparation towards this very important competition.Judging from where we have been training -Paris -and what we have been doing different from other more accomplished football nations,our attitude towards this defining tournament is lackadaisical and imprudent.
Ghana is lined up against Serbia on June 13 at the picturesque Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenberg which sits at 1500 metres above sea level,while The Black Stars take on Australia in Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium anchored at 1400 metres on Juneteenth.Four days later,the Ghanaians trek to Johannesburg's Soccer City which rises 1753 metres above sea level to engage three-time World Champions, Germany.
You see,Paris, France where the Black Stars were preparing for two weeks and from where they took on acclimatized Holland in their 4-1 loss,lies less than 200m above sea level.In the other friendly match they pipped World Cup 2010 absentee,Latvia by a lone goal in low lying London.Why is the altitude important in this preparation towards the world's most glamorous fiesta?
The saying goes that good things happen when opportunity meets preparation.It is crucial for all teams preparing for South Africa because most of the venues are above 1000 metres above sea level.And training in Paris will NOT adequately prepare us for the oxygen-thin air in South Africa. In fact not being acclimatized means our boys are going to struggle to breathe while those who had the wisdom to prepare ahead of time will have the going easier.
Cameroon,England,France, Serbia and a host of other teams spent time training on mountains for that purpose. In fact it was in one of these camps that France found out that their skillful midfielder Lassane Diarra carried the sickle cell trait and therefore found the going tough and had to be cut from the team.England spent two weeks in Austria,while Ghana was in flat Paris.
Anyone who is born in lowlands know how lung-labouring it is when you move to mountainous areas,especially athletes.Legendary England coach ,Fabio Capello has admitted that a major point in this year's World Cup would be the altitude.A visibly drained,Landon Donovan,US captain, raised an important point after their 3-1 victory over Australia in a South African friendly three days ago.He said they wanted to test their fitness and whether 'they will last 90 minutes'.England striker Jermain Defoe said that the struggled while playing in their last warm -up match against a local side although they won 6-0.This proves that playing at altitude is very different from playing on the flat.
In one of World Cup qualifiers against Malawi,Ghana went up 3-0 in the first half but struggled to keep the scoreline at 3-2 after the effects of the oxygen deprived altitude began to tell on them. Meanwhile the Malawians were lively in the second half and almost pulled off an upset.
Ghana arrived in South Africa on Sunday so arguably we have one week before our first match against Serbia who have been training at altitude for longer.Against these sides,Germany,Australia I would venture that the wall of separation will be those who have enough wind in their sails at the end.
I sincerely hope altitude plays a small part in the matches.I also wish I could say that this opportunity will collide with our preparation for good things to happen to us.On the other hand after staying in that altitude for some time you get used to the thin air and we might be banking on the 3 days between matches to recover enough for the next one.
Above all I hope our officials plan well next time for any similar challenge and do what is prudent for our attitude to determine our altitude in this tournament.
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