Accra (Greater Accra) 10 August 2000
Standings of the 16-team ABC Premier League
after the 21st week out-standing league matches played on Wednesday, between
Hearts/GHAPOHA and Olympics/Dwarfs.
Standings of the teams at the end of the 22nd
week 022: 7th August 2000
Team Local/Region P W D L F A Pts GD
Hearts Accra, Gt. Accra 21 17 3 1 47 13 54 +34
Goldfields Obuasi, Ashanti 22 11 5 6 22 13 38 +9
King Faisal Kumasi, Ashanti 22 10 6 7 27 20 34 +7
Liberty Accra, Gt. Accra 22 10 3 8 29 23 33 +6
Ghapoha Tema, Gt. Accra 21 9 6 8 27 27 33 0
Kotoko Kumasi, Ashanti 22 8 6 8 24 25 30 -1
RTU Tamale, Northern 22 9 3 10 19 24 30 -5
Okwawu Nkawkaw, Eastern 22 7 8 7 23 22 29 +1
Bofoakwa Sunyani, Brong Ahafo 22 8 5 11 21 27 29 -6
Olympics Accra, Gt. Accra 22 8 6 8 22 25 27 -6
Hasaacas Sekondi, Western 22 7 5 10 24 22 26 -2
Dwarfs Cape Coast, Central 21 6 6 9 20 26 25 -6
Kwaebibirim Asuom, Eastern 22 7 4 11 20 32 25 -12
Power F/C Koforidua, Eastern 22 5 8 9 16 20 23 -4
Dawu Dawu, Eastern 22 4 10 8 23 28 22 -5
B.A. United Sunyani, Brong Ahafo 22 3 8 11 13 27 17 -14
(NB: Accra Great Olympics, with four wins and five draws suffered a deduction of three points from their build up for failing to honour an outstanding match against King Faisal who were credited with the points.)
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 08 2000
Great Olympics produced a superlative display
of attacking football when they beat Cape Coast Ebusua Dwarfs by three goals to
nil in an outstanding Premier League match at the Accra Sports stadium on
Wednesday.
Dwarfs kicked off but soon lost the initiative
to Olympics, who gave an early indication of their determination to carry the
day when wing-back, Fuseni Adams drove a fierce free-kick just over the bar in
the seventh minute.
In the 27th minute, Aziz Ansah fired a shot
into the visitors net, but referee Mohammed Issaka from Tamale ruled a handball
against him.
Two minutes later, Olympics' midfielder,
Michael Asante, made a dangerous incursion into Dwarfs' penalty area and forced
central defender Stanley Afadzi to handle the ball. Aziz Ansah converted the
resultant penalty to give Olympics the leader.
Dwarf put Oly under intense pressure from the
32nd minute onwards but goalkeeper, David Sharpe was at his best as re stopped
all goal-bound shots.
The second half was more competitive as Dwarfs
probed for the equaliser but Nana Eshun, Philip Kutsu and George Essilfi
defended well to keep them on the bay.
In the 60th minute, Fuseni Adams hit a
thunderous free-kick from outside the penalty area which goalkeeper Kweku Ofori
could only parry onto the path of Michael Asante to slot home Oly's second
goal.
Olympics went further up in the 65th minute
when a piercing pass to the back of the Dwarfs defence line from substitute Joe
Louis found Nurudeen Raja who banged in a good shot to cushion Oly's lead to
three.
Dwarfs raised the standard of their game and
drew rings round the Olympics players but their defenders remained resolute and
thwarted all the moves, while they resorted to fast breaks in a bid to increase
the score-line.
Jubilant Olympics fans mobbed Mr. Ade Coker,
the President of the club and carried him shoulder high to his car at the end
of the match.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 10 08 2000
The invisibility surrounding Accra
Hearts of Oak was broken at the Tema Sports Stadium on Wednesday when Ghapoha
Readers subdued them with a lone goal.
Speedster Kwabena Boateng scored
the goal in the 73rd minute in a war of wits as Ghapoha played in yellow and
red jersey similar to Hearts traditional colours of the rainbow.
Boateng who shot at close range in
the penalty box past a confused bunch of Hearts defenders, and left goalkeeper
James Narnor sprawling on the turf for the only goal of the match.
Mr. Cecil Jones Attuquayfio,
Hearts' Coach conceded defeat, saying no club can go unbeaten forever but was
confident that it will not discourage the team.
He told the GNA that the defeat was
due to fatigue resulting from a busy schedule that sees them playing twice
every week because of their participation in the Africa Champions league
tournament.
"The fatigue is now telling on
us and we have to do something about it", he said, but Mr. Harry Zakkour,
Chairman of the club was however of the opinion that the players have been too
relaxed.
Hearts' Ishmael Addo missed good
scoring chances in the 15th, 30th and 49th minutes when he shot wide across the
goal post of Ghapoha while Charles Taylor also shot to the side netting in the
55th minute.
A chance to equalise for Hearts was
wasted in the 83rd minute when the Ghapoha defence cleared a dangerous
goalmouth struggle to pin down hearts to the lone goal defeat.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 08 2000
The problem of Kotoko players featuring for the
national teams seem to be raising its ugly heads again with the hiring of
German coach Ernst Middendorp as the helmsman of the Porcupine Warriors.
This follows the refusal of the Kotoko
management to release Stephen Oduro, Lawrence Kainya and Baba Iddi to join the
national under-20 soccer team, the Black Statellites, in preparation towards
the first qualifier of Africa under-20 championship in October.
came to
light when, wrote to the management of Kotoko for the release of but the
players have not been released.
In response to a letter from Mr. Emmanuel Kwesi
Afranie, Technical Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Kotoko said
coach is unhappy with the "unprofessional manner" in which the
handlers of the national under-20 are handling issues relating to the release
of the players for national assignments.
The letter said "our coach drove all the
way from Kumasi to Winneba to discuss this and other technical issues with the
head coach but met his absence. He left a message for the head coach to contact
him for a discussion on the matter but this has not been done".
It said Midedendorp is of the view that this
matter should be resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both coaches.
"He does not want to be compelled to
resist the release of his players to the national camp", the letter added.
In an interview with the GNA coach Afranie,
headcoach for the under-20 team expressed shock and dismay at the language used
in the letter.
He asked, what is unprofessional about writing
to the management of Kotoko for the release of the players?
Coach Afranie was surprised that coach
Middendorp wields so much power in Kotoko that decisions that should be taken by
management, are handled by him.
Afranie said the practice is for "a formal
letter to be written to the management of a club and in consultation with the
coach the players are released," and wondered what exactly coach
Middendorp is driving at.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 08 2000
Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Youth and
Sports, on Wednesday told Abdul Razak, Deputy Coach of the senior national
soccer team, the Black Stars to vacate his hotel and relocate to the Winneba
Sports College.
Speaking to GNA Sports in his office in the
presence of the deputy coach, the minister described the continuous stay of the
coach at a hotel as wasteful, since there is accommodation for national soccer
coaches at Winneba.
On the ability of Ghanaian coaches, the
minister said they have the technical acumen to guide our football teams to
laudable positions in international competitions.
Mr. Mensah said it is unfortunate that some
media practitioners have put personal sentiments above our national interest
and asked them to be a bit patriotic in the discharge of their duties.
The minister said while he abhors interference
in the technical duties of national team coaches, he would not sit down
unconcerned and watch things go from bad to worse.
He described the reception accorded the
national under-21 team, the Black Satellites when they returned from the World
Youth Tournament in Nigeria without a medal but had their coach carried
shoulder-high by soccer fans as a piece of motivation for coach Dossena towards
impending assignments.
The minister said even with that kind of
encouragement, the coach gave many Ghanaians a broken heart during the Nations
Cup notwithstanding the massive advantage of playing at home.
Reacting to a question on a French coach for
the Black Stars, the Minister said the French coach would work in a technical
advisory capacity and would liase with national coaches, who will be directly
responsible for grooming teams assigned to them.
Also present were Mr. Fred Osam Duodu, the
newly appointed coach of the Black Stars, and Mr. Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie, head
coach of the Black Satellites.
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