Ghana starting to look like 2010 again - England may have proved it

Long before the World Cup knockout rounds come into view, there is usually one result that changes how a team is seen. For Ghana, this may have been it.

Not because the Black Stars beat England or dazzled going forward, but because they left one of the tournament favourites looking exactly as they wanted, frustrated, short of ideas and unable to break down a side that understood the assignment.

In a goalless draw at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Ghana did more than take a point off England. They strengthened the feeling that they may be building something dangerous at this World Cup.

Two matches into the tournament, Ghana sit on four points, level with England at the top of Group L, and a first knockout appearance since 2010 is no longer a distant possibility. It is right there in front of them.

That 2010 campaign remains the gold standard of Ghana’s World Cup history.

The Black Stars reached the quarter-finals in South Africa, becoming only the third African nation to get that far and came within a penalty shootout of making the semi-finals after one of the most dramatic nights the tournament has ever seen against Uruguay.

It was a team built on resilience, discipline and belief, and this current side is beginning to show flashes of those same qualities.

That is the real significance of this result.

England finished with 19 shots, nearly 79 per cent possession and most of the territory, yet it was Ghana who emerged with greater momentum.

Carlos Queiroz’s side were compact, disciplined and completely comfortable playing without the ball. Benjamin Asare stood tall in goal, Thomas Partey brought calm and steel in midfield, and the back line handled wave after wave of pressure with impressive authority.

England had the ball, but Ghana had the control.

That was the most striking part of the night. This was not a team hanging on and hoping for the best. Ghana looked like a side that had already accepted the game would be ugly and decided that ugliness suited them just fine. They slowed England down, denied them space and waited for frustration to creep into the Three Lions’ play.

It did.

After the fluency of their 4-2 opening win over Croatia, Thomas Tuchel’s side looked far more familiar here - heavy in possession, short on imagination and increasingly predictable once the spaces disappeared. Ghana turned the game into exactly the kind of contest England hates most, one where domination of the ball means very little if there is no incision to go with it.

For Ghana, though, this was about more than England’s shortcomings. It was about identity.

Their 1-0 win over Panama in the opener hinted at a side built on discipline rather than spectacle. This drawing reinforced it. Ghana are not trying to be the tournament’s most entertaining team; they are trying to be one of its most difficult to beat. And that can take you a long way in World Cup football.

It is why comparisons with 2010 suddenly do not feel so far-fetched. Not because this side has already matched that famous quarter-final run, but because it is beginning to show some of the same qualities: resilience, clarity and a refusal to be intimidated by bigger names.

The Black Stars are still only two games into their campaign. But they have taken four points from six, remain unbeaten against England in senior men’s football and, most importantly, look like a side growing into the tournament.

They may not be the story of the World Cup just yet. But after dragging England into a fight and walking away stronger for it, Ghana are starting to look like a team nobody will want to face in the knockout rounds.