The demeanour of Ghana’s Black Stars after their 0-1 defeat to Burkina Faso in the third-place playoff of the 2017 Africa Cup of on Saturday has come for criticism.
After succumbing to a very late Alain Traore free-kick strike to miss their third bronze medal in four years (2012, 2013 and 2017), players of the national team were captured in broad smiles exchanging pleasantries with their opponents.
This, two former Ghana stars, captain Stephen Appiah and winger Laryea Kingston have expressed grave concern about. According to them, the body language of the players after the game was not proper and smacked of a lack of concern to the feelings of a disappointed nation.
“You’ve lost a game, you’ve lost bronze and it’s like they don’t care and were cracking jokes with the Burkinabes?,” an unhappy Kingson charged while reviewing Ghana’s campaign at the 2017 Afcon on Soccer Chat aired on GHOne TV.
“Some may not agree, but I think they should have shown emotions. It is an international game and a medal was at stake…,” he added.
Taking his turn, Appiah who recently hanged his boots re-echoed his ex-teammates sentiments.
“Sometimes players forget that the camera is on them so they may do some things and not be aware… But it’s not cool. Yes, I think the reaction was not good…” he said.
Appiah added that the body language of the team prior to the medal presentation looked like “we don’t care about the third place.”
“Third place is important!” the ex-Juventus midfielder sharply emphasized.
Ghana, after losing the 2015 finals to Ivory Coast, had high hopes of ending a 35-year trophy wait this time round. They however suffered a 0-2 defeat to Cameroon in the semifinals.
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