Carol Muthondu

Despite losing at the quarter-finals Ghana will take positives from Anthony Annan who could be the best in the holding midfield role at the tournament.
Annan, a relative of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, played a starring role in Black Stars’ campaign in South Africa.

In a role that is crowded with many players which makes it difficult to sieve who the real star is, the Rosenborg player has cut his niche, which is now drawing comparisons with former French and Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele.
Annan is likely to make Fifa’s all-star team even if in a reserve role. What makes it even sweeter for Annan’s fans is the fact he played the dirty work for Ghana single-handedly unlike other countries had two players doing the same work.
Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger could be the best in the 2010 World Cup but his work has been made easier by the presence of Sami Khedira.
Schweinsteiger has been free to move forward leaving Khedira behind but Annan has had no such luxury.
Argentina’s Javier Mascherano, Victor Caceres (Paraguay) and Christian Poulsen (Denmark) are the other holding midfielders that have impressed but lacked the authority Annan carried in Ghana’s midfield.
Mexico’s Rafael Marquez did impress and was always making his way into their opponents’ box mainly because of his upbringing having played at Barcelona since he was a teenager.
Italy had Daniele de Rossi but he had little to do as quite often Slovaks and the Paraguayans overran him in the group stages where Italy exited the competition.
Against USA, Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac applied the 5-2-3 formation with Annan and Kevin-Prince Boateng staying in the middle. The idea was to hide the threat provided by the Portsmouth man from where he could spring a surprise, which did happen as he scored, by running from deep midfield.
All that while, Annan was not supposed to leave the area in front of the defence that was being manned by Jonathan Mensah, Hans Sarpei, John Mensah, John Pantsil and Samuel Inkoom.
May be it was tough asking for Annan, but the 23-year old acquitted himself in a role other countries like Brazil, Netherlands and Slovakia had two men for it.
Brazil for instance had Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo with the later running up and down the length and breadth of the pitch.
Netherlands had Nigel Jong and Mark van Bommel to do the clean-up. Slovakia coach Vladmir Weiss tried Juraj Kucka against Netherlands but flopped having also tried two men in midfield.