The Black Stars declared a state of emergency immediately after Monday’s painful 1-2 defeat to the USA and headed straight from the stadium to the airport to fly back to Maceio to prepare for Germany in their next Group G game on Friday.
The Stars packed bag and baggage into a waiting coach and after sometime drove off straight to the airport back to their camping base Monday night.
Confusion was the mood in camp moments after the match and the team officials decided not to sleep over in Natal but return to their Maceio base to strategise on the way forward.
The erratic behaviour of classy Kevin-Prince Boateng immediately after the final whistle by Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson captured the mood of the Black Stars players as he booted a water bottle in disgust at the touch line and headed straight into the dressing room.
The rest of the players, with sullen faces, followed the Schalke midfielder to the dressing room almost immediately as they tried to find out what hit the team, while Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari walked across the field to thank the Ghanaian fans for their support on the hot night.
In the midst of the gloom, Coach Kwasi Appiah was glued to the touch line as he was consoled by his technical assistants, Maxwell Konadu and Nassamu Yakubu.
In the midst of the storm, the Stars coach was on his feet throughout the game and was spotted snapping his fingers when the final whistle went, in reluctant approval that a battle had been lost.
While monitoring proceedings, it came to light that the Ghana team went into Monday’s game full of crisis.
A source close to the team hinted that ‘so many things happened in camp’ prior to the match with the US.
The source, however, stopped short of giving details of what actually transpired.
Another grapevine source attributed the Stars loss to lack of conditioning on the part of the players.
Source: Graphic Online