Ghana must be more precise in front of goal in their final group game against Germany.
Ollie Wright hopes Ghana aren't left rueing their Oz performance
Watching Ghana on Saturday afternoon was almost as traumatic as watching England stumble around like punchdrunk, sleeping giants against Algeria the night before.
Asamoah Gyan proved himself to be deadly from the spot again, but his attacking colleagues showed dreadful naivety.
It was truly exasperating to watch undoubtedly talented young players repeatedly shooting for goal from 30 or even 40 yards, when they had far better options.
The Jabulani is a ball that simply soars when struck hard, yet the Black Stars just kept brainlessly smashing it into the stand from miles out.
It made life very easy for a rugged yet desperately limited Australia, who were able to hold onto a point comfortably, even with 10 men.
Towards the end, they actually looked more likely to nick the game and Luke Wilkshire will probably be replaying the chance he missed to put the ball past Kingson for the rest of his life.
Pressure
As for Richard Kingson, well, unfortunately, the fears I mentioned in my last blog post about his solidity were proved to be founded. The Wigan reserve was rumbled by the bounce of the ball and spilled a free kick, putting his team under serious pressure and a goal behind.
Ghana deserved their leveller, which Gyan thumped home emphatically, but no more than that.
Unfortunately, Ghana looked nowhere near as stable at the back without John Mensah. After I cursed him by trumpeting his return to full fitness, Mensah broke down again the day before the Australia game.
He was joined on the sidelines by his centre back partner Isaac Vorsah, who has knee ligament damage and the duo were replaced by teenagers - Lee Addy and Jonathan Mensah.
With Vorsah and Mensah went Ghana's composure at the back and Australia will feel they missed a massive chance to take advantage, after losing Harry Kewell to a straight red card in the penalty incident.
It was clear that a lack of experience was throttling the Black Stars' attempts to break down the obdurate 10-man Socceroos, as the exuberant but hopelessly green Ghana midfielders constantly chose the wrong options.
Vulnerable
They looked for 'killer' balls that didn't exist, shot from ridiculous range, ran down blind alleys, slowed it down when they needed to speed it up and looked vulnerable to the counter attack.
I cursed Milovan Rajevac for not introducing the more experienced Sulley Muntari until too late in the day and for leaving Stephen Appiah on the bench completely. The Black Stars were crying out for somebody to put their foot on the ball in the midfield and take charge of things.
Australia won't qualify, but they might have put a major spoke in Ghana's chances. I said in my previous article that qualification was Ghana's to lose and it still is - but now, they need a result against a talented young Germany side, who will be desperate to get at them after the injustice of a defeat to Serbia, which was never on the cards until Miroslav Klose was harshly sent off.
It would be sad for Ghana and sad for Africa if the Black Stars blow qualification after making such a good start. A point would do it - but let's make no bones about it, a point would be a major achievement.
Hopefully, Mensah will be able to return and marshall the defence, as the younger defenders cannot be expected to hold the Germans at bay without him.
Bleeding profusely
John Pantsil is another doubt, after a clash of heads led to him being stretchered off the pitch, bleeding profusely.
However, even if both players do return, the forward players are going to have to show more intelligence if Ghana are to spring a major surprise.
Rajevac couldn't be blamed for ringing the changes and we could see Muntari starting in place of Prince Tagoe. Kojo Asamoah and Dede Ayew will probably keep their places from Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Matthew Amoah and Appiah, but the youngsters need to learn from the mistakes they made against Australia - and fast.
Ghana could still become the only African side to get out of the group stage - and possibly even put Germany out of the tournament in the process.
Let's just hope they don't end up ruing their dog of a performance against Australia.
