Ghana can go far at the World Cup: coach Addo

Interim Ghana coach Otto Addo believes his team can make a significant impact at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as the Black Stars prepare for their fourth finals at the global tournament.

Addo, with no previous senior coaching experience, took charge of Ghana in February after the sacking of Milovan Rajevac following their group stage exit from the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year.

“We can beat anyone. It's up to the players, not me. It’s their performances that have brought them this far. They have the quality, with or without me,” Addo told the Fifa website.

“I’m responsible for putting them in the right positions so that they can produce their best performances, with and without the ball. They have to be able to play together.”

Addo, who is combining his role as talent manager at Borussia Dortmund with the national team job, will lead Ghana into their Group H opener against Portugal on November 24 before they face South Korea four days later and Uruguay on December 2.

“We’re going up against three strong opponents and we could lose all three games or win all three. It’s up to us and how we adapt to their playing style, how we stop them, how we work together as a team,” Addo said.

“Every single game is different and the first match will be decisive. The subsequent games depend on the first one. If we lose, we need to be more attacking in the second match, but if not we can set ourselves up differently.”

Ghana play Uruguay in a rematch of the controversial quarterfinal in 2010, which the South Americans won on penalties, stopping them becoming the first African team to reach a World Cup semifinal.

Striker Luis Suarez handled Asamoah Gyan's goal-bound strike on the line in the dying seconds of extra-time to send the game to penalties, where Gyan's ballooned his shot over for Uruguay to win the shootout.

Veteran playmaker Andre “Dede” Ayew is the fulcrum of Ghana and a survivor in the squad of that unfortunate night at Soccer City in 2010.

“I'm sure that’ll be in the back of the minds of some players because it was a decisive game, not just for Ghana but for Africa as a whole,” Addo said.

Ghana have gone through three coaches in 12 months and are making a concerted effort to add new talent to the team in an effort to reprise old glory and be competitive at the World Cup.

Addo is Ghana's third coach in the last year after Charles Akonnor was fired despite taking the team through the group phase of the African World Cup qualifiers into the playoffs in March. Rajevac was shown the door after the disastrous Nations Cup campaign in Cameroon.

Rajevac was brought back after his exploits in 2010 when Ghana came within the width of the crossbar of becoming the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals.

But there were few similarities between the class of 2010 and the current generation and the Serbian was in charge for a matter of weeks as Ghana were humiliated in at the Nations Cup when tiny Comoros Islands put them out in the first round.

That led to the surprise appointment of the inexperienced Addo, the 47-year-old former Ghana international who was born in Germany and played for the Black Stars in their first World Cup appearance in 2006.

He had former Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton as his advisor as Ghana rode their luck to edge Nigeria in the March World Cup playoffs.

Ghana were held to a 0-0 home draw in the first leg of the tie but then snatched a berth in Qatar on the away goals rule following a 1-1 draw after a goalkeeping howler from the Nigerians.