Leicester City defender Daniel Amartey has been criticised for shouting at his goalkeeper in the midst of Ghana’s entertaining 3-2 win over South Korea in the World Cup.
Ghana lost their opening game against Portugal, meaning that they went into the game against South Korea knowing that anything but a win would be a big blow to their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament. Amartey played the full 90 minutes at centre-back against Portugal.
The Leicester City defender was again selected in the starting line-up on Monday afternoon. After coming under pressure for the first 20 minutes of the game, Ghana found themselves 2-0 up going in to half-time.
But South Korea turned things around quickly in the second half thanks to a quick fire double from Cho Gue-Sung. While there was only two minutes between the goals, Amartey was spotted on camera shouting at his goalkeeper and teammates following the first of the two.
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The Black Stars did go on to retake the lead in the game with Mohammed Kudus scoring his second goal of the match. Amartey then contributed to the Black Stars holding on for what was a crucial three points.
But it was the actions of the City defender in between the two goals that had pundits talking after the game. Former French international Laura Georges said that the defender’s concentration should have been on his own game.
“We saw Amartey talking to the goalkeeper, saying ‘oh, you need to get this ball’, then Korea scored, and I say ‘no, before talking to your goalkeeper, pay attention to your work’,” she said on the BBC after the game.
“Your full-back is eliminated, so you need to do the work, and then your midfield is going to come and cover you, then the other centre-back is going to cover you. You need to take responsibility before talking about your goalkeeper.”
Didier Drogba was in agreement with his fellow pundit, with him explaining how it was the time to keep calm instead of arguing with teammates.
“Sometimes, when you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re there and trying to adjust things and you’re shouting at your partner,” he said. “But it was only one goal, so you have time. Calm down, focus, settle down, you know ‘we got this’, and that’s what they didn’t do, and they conceded a second goal.”
Ghana will be back in action in their final group game against Uruguay who also suffered a 2:0 defeat to Portugal on Friday.
