What's Gone Right With Ghana and Algeria

Algeria and Ghana had terrible starts to their tournaments.

The Desert Foxes lost 3-0 to Malawi, fostering speculation that they we a team in chaos.

Ghana lost 3-1 to Côte d'Ivoire and started a "weakened" side.  It seemed the Black Stars were going to use the Cup of Nations as a teaching moment for their U-20 stars.

While each team gave us reason to think their Angolan experience would be short, Algeria and Ghana have made it to the final four of a tournament, leaving us to ask what changed between their opening match and their quarterfinal victories. 

Everything.  And, nothing.

For Algeria, the Malawi result served as a wake-up, though it could have gone the other way.  

Malawi was thought to be one of the tournament's less capable sides, before the first kickoff.  But in the openers they steamrolled the Foxes and had many thinking the problems surrounding coach Rabah Sadaane had spilled over onto the pitch.  

But as people starting to wonder if he would be sacked before Nigeria's Shaibu Amodu, Sadaane engineered a complete turnaround.  Algeria bounced back from their embarrassing opener with a defensive performance that rivaled Gabon's against Cameroon.  The Foxes shut out a Mali team that would score seven goals in their other two group matches.

The turnaround exhibited Algeria's strongest trait:  the perseverance.  The rebounded from their Malawi shock.  The rebounded from two deficits against Côte d'Ivoire.  They rebounded from being attacked in Cairo.  The Algerians have put themselves beyond question as it concerns their heart.

For the Algerians, everything changed after the Malawi match.  Their backs against the wall, they responded.  They beat Mali, got through against Angola, and after toppling the tournament favorites, are now in the semifinals.

In contrast, nothing has changed for Ghana.

Milovan Rajevac's XI was questioning in the wake of their loss to Côte d'Ivoire.  In response, Rajevac continued starting experimental sites.  Against Burkina Faso, he held Anthony Annan and Eric Addo out.  The Ghanians won 1-0 and got through to the knock-out rounds.

Surely in the quarterfinals Rajevac would start a full team?  No.  If anything, he started an even weaker side, electing to start forward Matthew Amoah on the bench.  However, Ghana still won 1-0 thanks to an early goal by Asamoah Gyan.

Through this measured approach, Ghana has been able to get their young players experience while still contending for this tournament's crown.  Rajevac has put faith in players like Kwadwo Asamoah, Andre Ayew, Isaac Vorsah and Samuel Inkoom, and they've given him results.  They have shown they can be contributors in June in South Africa, helping to round out a team that will include Michael Essien (no longer an option in this tournament) and Sulley Muntari (not called in).

Though they have yet to play a full team, Ghana could still win this tournament.  If they do, they will have captured the Cup of Nations with essentially a B-side, saying something strong about their chances come June, where they'll augment their success at the U-20 World Cup and their success at the Cup of Nations with all the talent they have restrained themselves from utilizing in Angola.

By changing nothing in his approach from the Côte d'Ivoire loss to the Angola win, Rajevac has affirmed that Ghana has a wealth of options for June.  The next generation of Ghanian star - a generation that was expect to assert itself in 2010 in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea - will make an impact in South Africa.

Rajevac deserves credit for being willing to use the Cup of Nations to discover this.  He deserves even more credit for winning while doing so.