Black Stars back home safe

The senior national team, the Black Stars, yesterday arrived home safely from Kinshasa, via Brazzaville after escaping the Congo DR unrest by a whisker.

“It was a close shave for us. We would have been caught in the middle of the assassination attempt if we had stayed in Kinshasa for one more day after the match.” the leader of the delegation, Mr Worlanyo Agra, said.

It was going to be a double tragedy for the Ghanaians, having lost the match 1-2 to the Congolese but Mr Agrah said a smart move from Kinshasa to neighbouring Congo Brazzaville saved the team.

“We were scheduled to move out with Ethiopian Airlines after the match but the flight did not turn up. As a result the Ghana Ambassador asked us to stay till the next day but strangely we refused and moved to Brazzaville instead,” Mr Agra explained.

Asked why the haste to leave Kinshasa, Mr Agra did not attribute it to the heightened political tension prevailing at that moment, but said they left because they did not feel too comfortable to stay after the near-neglect by the host soccer body.

“Our host FA did little for our comfort. We had to struggle to get some basic things that we needed ourselves,” Mr Agrah said.

Coach Jones Attuquayefio corroborated Mr Agra’s story of near-neglect and said the team could not have any effective training as a result of the poor nature of the pitch provided them.

“The pitch was the worst you can find on the continent. The only time we could have any good training was a day before the match when we got access to the stadium,” Attuquayefio explained.

The coach, who was on his first assignment as national team handler, however, blamed the defeat on ill-luck and said even though they lost the match, they gained a lot in team cohesion and harmony.