Local players to dominate Olympic qualifiers

Accra, Oct 2, GNA - Ralph Zumdick, coach of the national under-23 team, the Black Meteors, has expressed his desire to rely mostly on locally based players for the qualifying series of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games which starts on October 26 against South Africa. In an interview with GNA Sports the coach said to this end the present crop of players going to represent the country in the All African Games scheduled for Abuja in Nigeria will be the nucleus of the team with only a few additions from their foreign-based colleagues. He said among the foreign base players he intends to invite include John Painstil, Michael Essien, John Mensah and Abubakar Yakubu,

The Coach said the decision to use mostly local players is not to sideline the foreign-based players but to give them enough time to consolidate their positions in their respective clubs as the European seasons has just commenced. Coach Zumdick said though he will be participating in the All African Games, his main focus would be on the Olympics qualifiers, which has pegged Ghana in the same group with South Africa, Zambia and Algeria. "For me our opening group match against South Africa on October 26 in Accra is very crucial since it will set the stage for our picking the only ticket from the group to Athens. "The match against South Africa has an added significance since Ghana has not fared well in recent times in matches against them and it is important that we break that circle once and for all."

"To this end I have directed the grounds men at the Accra Sports Stadium to condition the pitch very well to enable us play the ball on the turf where we will have a comparative advantage over them" Coach Zumdick who was recently appointed coach for the Black Stars and Black Meteors on a six-month trial basis after the departure fellow German Burkard Ziese faces his first task in Nigeria. The Coach who is very familiar to the Ghanaian terrain having coached Kumasi Asante Kotoko to the finals of the African Cup Winner Cup and the later Kumasi King Faisal said the current crop of players in camp are arguably the best on the local scene who can bring honour and glory to the country.

He said he is not going into the Games expecting miracles but rather he is going to work hard and take one match at a time and " should we win the gold, I will not be surprised." The Coach said he is aware of the high expectations of Ghanaians any time any of the national teams play but it is also important for them to know that we are in a difficult group with Cameroon, Egypt and Algeria.