By Patrick Akoto
Legendary Ghanaian coach Fred Osam Duodu has jumped to the defence of under-fire Herbert Addo insisting he should not be ostracized despite the Black Stars early exit from the CHAN.
The Aduana Stars boss has come under heavy criticism from soccer fans in the West African after the local Black Stars after he failed to pick a single point from three games in the group phase.
The team were piped 1-0 to consign them to the foot of the table in group B and end the country’s campaign at the 2nd edition of the championship.
Duodu, who led Ghana to win the 1982 Africa Cup of Nations, slammed criticism from some heavyweight football administrators.
He told Peace FM: ‘In as much as he failed and didn't do well, I think some of the things people are saying are not unfair. It’s part of the game and rightly so because in game of football when you win you’re a hero and when you lose then you become the centre of all sorts of attacks."
"Foreign coaches have also come and fail and I remember in one of our such tournament in Ghana, we had won our first game I was hailed but when we lost the second game to Nigeria or so some fans nearly pelted me with sachet water. But eventually we won the tournament and I was the toast of fans.
"My only disappointment is that the FA should have taken some two or three technical directors with the coach (Herbet Addo) so that after we lost the first game, they could have been in a position to give him some technical advice."
Duodu’s time with the various national teams were heavily successful.
He led Ghana's Under-20 team to win the 1993 African Youth Championship and also had silver medal at the Fifa World Cup the same year in Australia.
He was also Ghana's coach during the 2002 African Cup of Nations, held in Mali.
In 2005 he led highly unfancied Gambia’s U-17 team to win the African Youth Cup, qualifying them for a Fifa Youth tournament for the first time.