Jones relieved and vindicated by Stars first
victory
Soccer-Congo adopts Attuquafio's idea
Jones relieved and vindicated by Stars
first victory
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 2001
Black Stars coach, Cecil Jones Attuquayefio has describe the his first victory as Coach of the senior national soccer team as a welcome relieve which he would built upon for subsequent matches.
"For a team to lose three important players and still managed to play the way they did today especially in the first half showed the sort of character that it has and what it is capable of doing when given the chance".
Jones who for some time now has been under a lot of pressure on his perceived exclusion of foreign based players from the team, said he had for this match invited Osei Kuffour, Charles Amoah and Emmanuel Duah.
"While Kuffour and Amoah said they would mot be able to honour the call, Duah gave us the indication that he would be coming after collecting his ticket but never turned up"
Jones again assured fans that his doors are always open to the foreign based players but to only those who are prepared to work with him since there are equally good local one around, all competing for positions.
He said he has also been vindicated by the performance Steven Tetteh since he was not expecting such performance from him having arrived from the altitudes of Ethiopia on Friday.
The skipper of the team Jacob Nettey described the victory as a dream come true for him having captained the national team to register its first victory this year.
He said Ghana will surely qualify for the African Cup of nations and assured fans that they have not given up qualification for World Cup adding, nobody should throw in the towel since it is not over until it is over."
GRi…/
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Soccer-Congo adopts Attuquafio's idea
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 2001
Lusudu Su, Technical Director of the Congolese National team, the Leopards, has said his country has already adopted Coach Attuquafio's idea of featuring mostly local players for the national team instead of blending them with many foreign-based players.
"We have just started adopting this laudable idea; we were in our second day before this match and that made it impossible for us to use them but we shall do so in our next match."
Speaking to the GNA sports in Accra, on Sunday, after the Black Stars featuring mostly local players have spanked them 3-0, Mr Lusudu attributed his team's lost to blending foreign-based players with the local ones.
He said it is always difficult assembling foreign-based players unlike the local one who are always available and ready and as such it would be expedient to build a strong team with local players.
Describing Sunday's match, Mr Lusudu said, he was not happy with his team's performance, saying that the Black Stars were strong and had a winning spirit than his team.
"I think, we have a group and not a team, the day was not good for us at all, our players were totally lost in the game."
Kimoto Okitankoyi of the Leopards admitted that they did not play well as compared to the Stars and attributed their defeat to the weather, which he described as very hot.
On his part, Amankwaa Mireku of Black Stars, described the match as a good game even though he in particular did not put up his best, perhaps due to the short time with which he had to adjust himself after just arriving from Ukraine on Thursday.
He said the match with the Super Eagles of Nigeria was much tougher than the Leopard because Nigerians are always considered rivals.
GRi…/
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