Coaches, players urged to take training seriously
Nigeria beat Uganda 1-0 in Olympics qualifier
Bonfrere holding out on Nigeria Olympic role
Winneba (Central Region), 28 February 2000
The Chairman of the National Sports Council, Alhaji M.N.D. Jawula, said at Winneba on Sunday that for the nation to regain its past glories in soccer, Ghanaian coaches and players must take physical training aspects of their programme seriously.
This is because physical fitness now plays a vital role in the development of the game.
Alhaji Jawula was opening a week-long grading course for 34 football coaches drawn from all the 10 regions of the country at the National Sports College, Winneba.
Mr Allen Jeffers and Mr Russ Facer, soccer coaching experts from the United States, together with five local coaches, are the resource persons for the course.
Mr. Osam Duodu, Ghana Football Association (GFA) Technical Director and CAF instructor, is the course coordinator.
Alhaji Jawulah recalled some of the incidents that prevented Ghana from reaching the finals of the just-ended CAN 2000 tournament co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria, saying: "our boys' failure to advance further in the competition can be attributed to lack of physical fitness".
He said the time has come for both coaches and footballers to attach great value to body building and other physical development activities so that they can always be in a position to deliver the goods.
He reminded the coaches that they hold the keys to Ghana's football success in future tournaments and charged them to put what they had learnt about their profession on paper so that they can properly impart them to their players during training.
Mr Dasobere, who chaired the function, appealed to the coaches to co-operate with the course instructors to enable them to derive a lot of experience from them.
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Kumasi (Ashanti), 28 February 2000
Kumasi Asante Kotoko and their arch-rivals, Accra Hearts of Oak settled for a goalless drawn game in the first leg of the J.O.T. Agyemang cup match at the Kumasi Sports Stadium on Sunday.
The Cup was donated by President J.J. Rawlings in memory of his late father-in-law, Mr J.O.T. Agyemang.
The stadium erupted with prolonged cheers when the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the company of Mr Samuel Nuamah-Donkor, Ashanti Regional Minister, his deputy, Mrs Joana Appiah-Dwomoh and the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Kumasi, Nana Akwasi Agyemang, arrived at the stadium at 2.50 pm.
They were welcomed by Mr E.T. Mensah, Minister of Youth and Sports, who escorted the Asantehene to the VIP stand as the crowd cheered wildly.
After this, the teeming crowd had to wait for almost an hour for the match to start as Hearts of Oak refused to use the gate opened for all the vehicles, insisting that they would use a different gate.
In the end when they entered the stadium, the crowd greeted the players with jeers and boos as they did light training on the pitch before the start of the match.
Hearts kicked-off brilliantly as they confused Kotoko with fast dashes and quick runs earning the first corner-kick in the eighth minute, which was wasted.
Kotoko counter-attacked a minute later slicing through the Hearts defence but a shot by Shamo Abbey from a cross by Kambou Clovis hit the upright with goalkeeper Eben Dida was displaced.
Hearts continued their dominance as Kotoko struggled to keep pace with the game earning their second corner-kick in the 12th minute, which the Kotoko defence managed to contain after the ball had been floated into their goal area.
Stephen Oduro of Kotoko fumbled in the 24th minute when Clovis out-run the defence and squared a pass to him.
In the second half, Hearts made three changes as against two by Kotoko but the two teams could still not break the deadlock.
In the 71st minute, Kotoko's Micheal Osei bulldozed his way through the defence but his low shot missed the side-post.
Kotoko staged a last minute rally as they pinned Hearts to their half of the pitch, earning an 88th minute corner-kick but wasted it.
The second leg will be played at the Accra Sports Stadium on Wednesday.
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Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), 28 February 2000
The Burkina Faso Football Association has appointed Sidiki Diarra as head coach of the national football team, the Etalons.
He replaces Belgian national Rene Taelman, who was sacked for "poor results" following the Africa Cup of Nations finals co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria when Burkina Faso was eliminated in the first round.
Diarra formerly coached the first division club, Rail Club of Kadiogo.
He is also a former goalkeeper for a first division club and the national team for ten years.
Besides the RCK, Diarra has also trained the armed forces team.
Joseph Kabore, who played for the national team and the Etoile Filante of Ouagadougou, was named his deputy.
Both men were deputies to Frenchman Philippe Troussier, who coached the Etalons during CAN '98 whose finals were played in Ouagadougou.
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Conakry (Guinea), 28 February 2000-02-28
The Black Meteors of Ghana boosted their chances of qualification to the Sydney 2000 Olympics with a 2-1 away win over their Guinean counterparts in Conakry on Sunday.
Top striker, Baffour Gyan secured the three maximum points for the Meteors with a strike in each half after Guinea had taken the lead.
The Guinean’s goal, a gifted one in the 38th minute, came as a result of a blunder by Meteors goalkeeper Sammy Adjei who conceded what could go down in history as one of the cheapest goals ever scored.
The ace goalie after grabbing a shot from a Guinean attacker, surveyed the field to identify a team mate that he could throw the ball to. Surprisingly, Adjei found himself throwing the ball into his net to register the first goal for their opponents.
The sparse crowd at the stadium including Egyptian referee Ghazzat Mohammed burst into fits of laughter as Adjei looked on agonisingly for gifting the Guineans with a goal.
The Ghanaians seemed to have been incensed by the goal and they lifted their game and in the 43rd minute, Baffour Gyan connected beautifully with a header to substitute Hamza Mohammed’s cross to bring Ghana on level terms.
On the stroke of halftime Guinea’s strength was reduced to ten men when Sambegou Bangoura was sent off for dangerous play.
However, the Meteors had to wait until two minutes inside injury time before Gyan put the ball beyond the reach of keeper Alpha Cone to win the day for Ghana.
Cameroon beat South Africa 2-0 in the other Group B match played in Younde on Sunday.
Group B standings to date is as follows:
Teams P W D L F A Pts. GD
Cameroon 4 3 0 1 7 3 9 +4
Ghana 4 2 1 1 7 5 7 +2
S. Africa 4 2 1 1 7 5 7 +2
Guinea 4 0 0 4 2 10 2 -8
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Lagos (Nigeria) 28 February 2000
A pathetic Nigerian Under-23 soccer squad playing before a huge home crowd managed a 1-0 victory over an equally unimpressive Ugandan side in one of the Sydney Olympics 2000 games qualification matches Saturday.
Playing without injured Julius Aghahowa, the CAN 2000 championship sensation, the Nigerians, who are the Olympic defending champions, betrayed a miserable lack of bite in the attack, with strikers losing a dozen scoring chances.
Aghahowa, who had scored two goals in Nigeria's 3-2 away win against the same Ugandan side, when both teams met last week in Kampala, was sorely missed.
The restive fans at the National Stadium Surulere, were thoroughly disappointed by the home boys' lacklustre show Saturday, especially coming after Nigeria's
controversial penalty shoot-out loss to Cameroon in the CAN 2000 finals 13 February.
The Ugandans too, coached by Nigerian-born Harrison Okagbue, were no better, and were apparently playing for a draw.
The first-half ended goal-less with the unpardonable misses on both sides continuing into the second stanza, forcing the home fans to switch support to the Ugandans.
Substitute James Obiora, however, scored a face-saving 89th minute spot-kick for the home team, after his team-mate Pius Ikedia, was brought down near the Ugandan 18-metre box.
This set the subdued crowd alive again.
The victory brings Nigeria on the same nine points with Zimbabwe, which leads their group on superior goals difference.
Nigeria has two outstanding matches against Angola away and group leaders Zimbabwe in Lagos to determine which of the four teams qualify for the Sydney Olympic games later in the year.
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Cape Coast (Central Region), 28 February 2000
Six records were broken in the Central Region Zone three inter-schools athletic competition at Mfantsipim school grounds on Friday.
Matina Baffoe, of Holy Child set a new record in the 200 metres. She clocked 26.09 seconds against 29 seconds set in 1999.
Matin again shattered the 100-metres record with a time of 12.6 seconds against 13 seconds set in 1996.
Eva Ankrah of Wesley Girls High School made a new record in the Javelin with a throw of 33.94 metres against the 30.28 metres set in 1980.
Evelyn Kilson of Holy Child shattered the shot put record of 9.79 metres set in 1990 with a throw of 9.94 metres.
In the 4x400-metre relay, Wesley Girls smashed the old record of four minutes 31.47sec set in 1993 by Holy Child with four minutes 24.9 seconds.
Holy Child clocked 53sec in the 4x100 metres relay to shatter the previous record of 53.05sec by Wesley Girls last year.
Mfantsipim School bagged 201 points to capture the championship trophy.
St. Augustine’s College took the second position with 194 points while University Practice came third with 56 points.
Wesley Girls snatched the first position in the girls division with 173 points; Holy Child placed second with 148 while University Practice came third with 54.
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Lagos (Nigeria), 28 February 2000
Nigerian national soccer coach Jo Bonfrere said on Sunday he will not work with the country's Olympic team unless he is allowed to choose his own assistants.
The Nigerian under-23 side struggled to beat Uganda 1-0 in an Olympic qualifying match on Saturday with Bonfrere watching from the terraces. At halftime, he went to chat with the team in their dressing room.
Dutchman Bonfrere, who led the full team to the final of the recent African Nations Cup and took the under-23s to Olympic gold in 1996, said he had told the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) of his conditions.
"They have to respect the clause in my contract which states that I'll pick who should work with me when I'm training any of the national teams," Bonfrere said on Sunday.
But NFA secretary general Tijani Yusuf said: "We have tried to explain to him that it will not be financially and morally right for us to fire the coaches training the Olympic team before he was appointed to coach our junior, youth and senior national teams."
Bonfrere become a folk hero in soccer-mad Nigeria after the Atlanta success but left the job claiming non-payment of bonuses and allowances. He was re-appointed last November.
The fans chanted "We want Bonfrere" during Saturday's game as the Nigerian team, with mostly foreign-based players, missed many scoring chances.
Yusuf said the NFA will not react "irrationally" to the fans' comments, adding: "After holding a meeting with Bonfrere, he has agreed to work with the team from behind the scenes until we reach a favourable conclusion."
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Rabat (Morocco), 28 February 2000
Henri Kasperczak, a Poland-born Frenchman, will Monday be officially presented as new national team coach of Morocco, the domestic football body announced.
Kasperczak replaces Henri Michel of France, who quit after an early elimination at the recent African Nations Cup.
Kasperczak played football at Legia Warsaw and Metz. His previous coaching jobs were at the national teams of the Ivory Coach and Tunisia. He led the latter to the 1998 World Cup in France where they were eliminated in the first round.
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