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Soccer News of Saturday, 12 April 2003

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Bukhard confident of teams' qualification to nations cup

Mr. Bukhard Ziese, head coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars has stated emphatically that, the stars would beat Uganda and Rwanda to book their qualification to next year's, Nations Cup in Tunisia.

Speaking at a Press Conference in Accra on Friday, Coach Ziese said any result apart from victory in the two matches would mean the stars inability to appear at the nations cup adding, "we have to beat the two teams to gain entry to the African soccer fiesta".

The Black Stars are expected to take on Uganda on June 27 in Accra and Rwanda in Kigali on July 7 the return legs of the qualifying matches of the African Cup of Nations.

Coach Ziese said, if he could get the full complement of Ghanaian professional players abroad there would be no doubt that the team would beat their opponents come June 27 and July 7 to qualify for the next nations cup.

According to Coach Ziese " if all the invited foreign based player would respond to their invitations swiftly, then a formidable squad would be assembled for the two matches and there is no way victory shall elude us".

Commenting on the recent four-nation tourney hosted by Tunisia, in which Ghana participated and placed third, coach Ziese attributed the team's performance to the failure of some foreign-based players to respond to national call.

He mentioned players like Augustine Arhinful, Samuel Osei-Kuffour, Daniel Edusei, Kofi Amponsah among others who could not make it to the tourney.

The German coach the use of a full squad would have enabled the team to win the tourney, taking into consideration the level of performance put up by the Stars.

"We would have beaten all the teams in the tourney, if I had had a good response from the players I invited".

The coach however lamented on what he described as the poor state of goalkeeping in the country and added that measures would be taken to address the problem.

He said a group of goalkeepers, numbering about eight including one amateur keeper from Germany, Issah Umar Abukari would assembled next week for a justify your inclusion exercise to select the best keeper for the team.

He also indicated that similar exercises would be conducted for some left and right backs as well as midfielders as part of the team building exercise.

Coach Ziese said a list of players outlined for the national team would be made public as they are expected to begin training next week.

Coach Isaac Paha, his assistant said the main problem of the team was a weak defensive system following the failure of most the defenders invited to turn up for the tourney.

Coach Paha said the level of tactical indiscipline displayed by the team on the field, which saw two of the players being expelled from the two games through red cards is also one of their problems.