KANSAS CITY -- Ghana's players said that the first-half injury to Marvin Senaya, and the impromptu entry of his replacement Alidu Seidu, was the decisive moment in the Black Stars' 1-0 defeat by Colombia in Kansas City on Friday.
The West Africans were eliminated from the FIFA World Cup, and the match hinged on a few critical minutes early in the first half, when rightback Senaya went down with an apparent hamstring injury, and backup Seidu was called into action in the 13th minute.
The 26-year-old entered for his first minutes of the tournament, but was almost immediately caught out of position as Colombia exploited space down Ghana's exposed right to take the lead through Jhon Arias.
"Obviously, you need to be ready," centreback Jerome Opoku told ESPN after the match. "I think coming off the bench is difficult. [Alidu] did his best to fit in, and I thought he did a good job, but yes - they scored on that side, which is unfortunate.
"Alidu is a great player, and Marvin is too, but his injury was unfortunate. Maybe it [affected] the flow of the back four.
"We just need to look back at it, and see where we can improve."
They were one of only four teams not to concede in their first two matches of the competition, but the arrival of Seidu appeared to immediately leave Ghana looking vulnerable at the back.
Leftback Gideon Mensah agrees that the early injury to Senaya, and Seidu then coming into the match cold, was the turning point for a Black Stars side who had been admired for their defensive resilience in the tournament so far.
"We were not ready for the injury," Mensah agreed. "You have a player coming off the bench who's not ready to be in the game, because of the injury.
"He got back into the game very well, but it's quite unfortunate that we [conceded] a goal after Marvin went out, from Alidu's side.
"It's part of the game. We can't blame him, we can't blame anybody. We went out onto the field as a team, and we came off it as a team."
While Ghana struggled to create any chances of note to force a way back into the game -- failing to register a single shot on target during the encounter -- head coach Carlos Queiroz was adamant that it was the injury to fullback Senaya, and the disruption to the defence, that cost his side progression to the Last 16.
"You remember the incident with the rightback, when we lost Senaya," he told ESPN. "It cost us. It was just one moment of [lost] concentration. One moment of concentration, at this level, is the difference between winning and losing.
"It wasn't easy to play against Colombia, especially after they'd scored early. We were forced to chase the result since the beginning, and this [moment] gave a big advantage to Colombia."
Despite the defeat, and the early setback with Seidu's lapse, the veteran Portuguese coach insists that he isn't going to dwell on the minutes that turned the tie in Colombia's favour.
"The only thing we can't control are injuries," he concluded. "That moment, those two minutes, were crucial for us."
While Ghana now return home to reflect on a mixed campaign, Colombia advance to meet Switzerland in a Last 16 game in Vancouver on July 7.
