Ghana in World Cup finals is Dossena's mission

ACCRA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Ghana coach Giuseppe Dossena said on Saturday that he was determined to make the West African country a major power in African soccer.

"My target is the World Cup because we have never been there and this is the country for the football," Dossena said. "I compare this country with the biggest in Africa, with Nigeria and Cameroon."

The Black Stars have won four African Nations Cup titles, they have been hugely successful in youth level tournaments and produced world class players such as Abedi Pele. But they have never qualified for a World Cup finals and their recent Nations Cup record has been relatively poor -- their last title was in 1982, the year in which Dossena was in Italy's World Cup-winning squad. Ghana need a point against Ivory Coast on Monday to be sure of a quarter-final place after a 1-1 draw with Cameroon and an easy 2-0 win over Togo in group games. Dossena said he was trying to make his team perform ~like Africans when we have the play and Europeans when we don't have it.

"Against Togo, we played a great match. I'm very happy because they played as a European team. "Against Camerooon, we played well for 20 minutes...it was the first game, opening ceremony, in front of our country, the people, the pressure was too much." But it has not been easy to remove an individualistic attitude among his players.

"Even if they play in Europe, when they come back here, they lose everything and they start thinking African again." "It is natural. If you don't have money, you have to defend yourself to eat every day. Then you always have to think for yourself, but that is not the answer when you play football." Dossena is one of few Italians to have broken into African coaching which has long been dominated by French and, to a lesser extent, German coaches.

"The Italian coaches, their minds were not so open in the past, we thought that football was only in Europe." "But that is not true. I learn every day here as a coach and as a person." He refused to look beyond Monday's game. "You can't talk about the future in Africa."