Even though the senior Ghana national football team Black Stars avenged the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Gabon with a similar scoreline in the World Cup/ Africa Cup qualifying match in Accra on Sunday not many people were impressed with the over all output of the team.

The packed Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra cheered the Black Stars like mad and even though the victory has moved Ghana back to the top of the group with superior goal advantage over Libya the verdict is that the Black Stars failed to sparkle and threw away countless scoring chances some seemingly easier to score than to miss. This is in sharp contrast to the sweet flowing stuff they displayed in the recent CAN 2008.

There appeared to be too much individualist play and team work was practically nil. Top striker Junior Agogo was well below his normal form. Even though he consistently harassed the not too stable Gabonese defence he at times appeared surprisingly absent-minded and let so many good passes from striking partner and first goal scorer Prince Tagoe go waste. No wonder a group of fans were heard in the stands asking for the recall of Asamoah Gyan who voluntarily quit the Black Stars under pressure from insulting fans who disliked his wasteful scoring habit at the 2008 Cup of Nations.

English premier league stalwarts Michael Essien of Chelsea and Portmouth’s Sulley Muntari the kingpins of the team looked match weary and could hardly put up their best even though Sulley managed to get the second goal for Ghana in the drab second half.

In terms of team work Gabon were definitely ahead of the Black Stars and it is to the credit of skipper John Mensah ably assisted by Issah Ahmed and my man of the match Harrison Afful who neutralised the spasmodic piercing attacks of the Gabonese.

There is a school of thought that believes that the marathon four matches in four weeks might have taken a toll on the stamina of the players but some technical people warn that some of the players might be ageing and a back up of youngsters must be groomed to fill the gaps in the team for us to have a real solid team with a realistic chance of reaching Angola and South Africa in 2010.

Luckily the qualifying series take a break to make way for the Beijing Olympiad. The series will resume in September and the expectation is that the Football Association will use this period to tidy up the technical bench. It has been made official that Sellas Tetteh was only assigned the first four matches in the series. He has managed to win three out of four matches which is not bad for starters but Angola and South Africa are miles away and the experiments would have to stop somewhere along the line. The football administrators would have to take the bull by the horn and get going so that when the roll call of outstanding football nations is made in 2010 the red, yellow and green flag of Ghana with the black star in the centre will be there flying at full mast.