Ebusua dwarfs beat Hearts of oak by three goals to two
Ebusua dwarfs beat Hearts of oak by three
goals to two
Cape Coast (Central Region) 07 September 2000
Cape Coast Ebusua Dwarfs on Wednesday registered their first victory on their home ground when they beat champion club Accra Hearts of oak by three goals to two in their outstanding ABC premier league match played at the Cape Coast sports stadium.
Hearts scored the opening goal in the fourth minute when Ishmael Addo capitalised on a defence blunder by a Dwarfs player.
Dwarfs who made several incursions into the 18 of the visiting team could not utilise the many chances, which came their way until in the 37th minute when Attiogbe beat two Hearts defenders in a row to equalise for his team to bring the half-time scores to a goal apiece.
On resumption of play, Attiogbe increased Dwarfs tally to two in the 70th minute when he connected home a penalty kick.
Hearts' Robert Sarbah scored an own goal in the 80th minute to bring Dwarfs tally to three, while Ishmeal Addo again scored for his team in the dying minutes of the game to bring the final results to three-two in favour of dwarfs.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 September
2000
The Black Queen's hope of making
their second appearance at the 2003 women's world cup competition could be far
from arms reach, unless a miracle happens.
The Queens, face a big challenge
as they make their second journey into this year's African Women's Championship
(AWC) in search of continental honours.
Incidentally, the Queens who were
the runners-up to the Falcons of Nigeria in the maiden tournament two years ago
in Nigeria, face each other again in group two, at the second AWC competition
schedule to come off in South Africa from the 14th-28th October.
The group considered by experts as
the group of death also has Cameroon and Morocco. The Queens open their group
against the Falcons on the 15th of October.
Ghana's second match is against
Cameroon on October 18 while Morocco lock horns with the defending champions,
Nigeria in titanic duel. The Queens clash with Morocco on the 21st,
while Cameroon take on Nigeria on the same day.
In group one, South Africa the
hosts, who were eliminated by the Queens two years ago, play a less fancied
team, the Reunion, while Uganda sort thing out with Zimbabwe on October 14.
Reunion comes face to face with Zimbabwe while South Africa plays Uganda on
October 17.
The first round ended successfully
with Egypt beating Reunion by 4-3, while Gabon went down by 0-3 against
Cameroon.
Morocco also thrashed Algeria by
3-0 while Zimbabwe walloped Lesotho 4-0.
The Queens were the only team who
qualified without kicking the ball following the withdrawal of Sierra Leone and
Burkina Faso from the competition.
Perhaps Ghana should have also
taken a clue from these two countries and also withdraw from the competition
considering the countless problems being faced in terms of preparation for the
competition.
The already dormant team, which
went to camp in June had to go back home to make way for the senior national
team, the Black Stars.
They are the only side who have
not had the chance to play an international match since their return from 'USA
99'.
With barely six weeks now for them
to go, no international matches have been organised for them to see how ready
they are now for the tournament.
Even though majority of the
players is made up of the USA 99 squad who have had the taste of international
soccer, there are some newcomers such as Basilia Amoah-Tetteh of Ghatel Ladies, Accra, Gloria Aikins of
Oforikrom, Kumasi and Doreen Awuah, Ghatel Ladies, Takoradi among others.
Their trip to Lagos to engage the
Falcons on July 15 never materialised while that of South Africa also could not
come on.
The Falcons, the defending
champions are bound for the Sydney Olympics and will come back a more prepared
side while the Bayana Bayana, playing as the host will leave no stones unturned
to ensure their qualification.
The task is now on Oheneba
Charles, chairman of the Black Queens management committee who should sit up
and see to the team's preparation for the competition.
He admits that their chances are
very slim because the team had not had any match to toughen them since Sierra
Leone pulled out.
He also talked of contacts for
international friendlies between the Queens and their Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina
Faso counterparts but said no reply has been received yet.
A heavy challenge therefore awaits
Coach S K Paha as he takes on his first international assignment to lead the
Queens to victory.
GRi…/
Gunther qualifies for 1/4, Anyidoho,
Ahenkora out
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 September 2000
The rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria in sports cuts across every discipline and this was epitomised at the Accra Sports Stadium tennis court where Ghana's rising star Gunther Darkey, went through a tough time to beat his Nigerian counterpart Sunday Maku 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday.
The victory qualifies the 24-year old Ghanaian to the quarterfinal stage of the three-week Third ITF West Africa Men's Satellites Circuit.
Gunther's win notwithstanding, the day could best be described as a bittersweet for Ghanaian Tennis followers because, two other members of the national tennis team; the Golden Rackets, Courage Anyidoho and Kwasi Ahenkora failed to move into the next stage of the competition.
Anyidoho after taking an easy first game win of 6-3, lost the other two 6-0, 6-2 to winner of the Second ITF Circuit held in Lome last month, Dirk Stegmann of South Africa.
Ahenkora also, lost to yet another South African Van Wyk Coenie 6-1, 6-2.
But the game that actually glued the fans to the edges of their seats was the Gunther-Sunday encounter. It was one game; the Nigerian exhibited enough resilience that could easily frustrate an inexperienced player.
Gunther, runner up to Stegmann in Lome and a quarter finalist at the first edition in Lagos, took advantage of an early double fault to take a commanding 2-0 lead. And from then on, he never looked back till he won the first game 6-2. The first win notwithstanding, the Nigerian had to force each set into a deuce.
Sunday ironically was galvanised by the first setback to display some excellent skills keeping Gunther at the baseline in most cases with his volley and occasional ground- strokes.
He nearly succeeded in frustrating Gunther with his occasional teaser, forcing the Ghanaian to the net and then lobs the ball over his head.
The skinny Nigerian, managed to win the first three set with his style but lost the following four to Gunther when an antidote was discovered.
Gunther went ahead to win the fifth but lost the next to Sunday before taking the final spot to carry the day with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
In the other matches, Australian Peter Scharler beat Andrew Mc Dade of South Africa; Thomas Kiantki defeated Borgault 6-3, 6-3 while Sonni Kayombo of the Democratic Republic of Congo pipped Daniel Norberg of Sweden.
French man Gueit Gwenael also booked a quarterfinal berth with 6-3, (7-6) victory over Zitko Radim of the Czec Republic.
GRi…/