Ghana's World Cup exit down to a lack of maturity, says Queiroz
- 'I felt really quickly that some of the Ghanaian players were fearful. They were not cool, calm, and collected when the pressure hit,' Queiroz says
KANSAS CITY: Ghana’s lack of experience and inability to stay calm under pressure were decisive factors in the 1-0 defeat by Colombia that sealed their World Cup elimination, manager Carlos Queiroz said after the round-of-32 loss.
Jhon Arias scored Colombia’s only goal in the 14th minute, shortly after the African team were forced into a defensive reshuffle when right-back Marvin Senaya went off injured and was replaced by Alidu Seidu.
“I felt really quickly that some of the Ghanaian players were fearful. They were not cool, calm, and collected when the pressure hit,” Queiroz said.
“It’s a very young team. We need more experience, we need time for some players to win what we call maturity,” the 73-year-old Portuguese manager added.
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“When you play this kind of competition at this level, you cannot only count on the enthusiasm of the youths,” he said.
Queiroz said Colombia were the better team on the night and deserved to move forward.
“The goal came too early for us … It took some time for us to adjust and recover from that substitution, and the goal came at the moment we were trying to resettle our team,” Queiroz said.
The Ghana coach acknowledged his side improved in the second half, but were never in control of the match.