Black Stars seek end to African Nations Cup misery

Today: Ghana 0-0 Morocco SEGOU, Mali -- Ghana coach Fred Osam-Duodo concedes that the failure of his country to lift the African Nations Cup for 20 years is a disaster. And defeat by Morocco in their first-round Group B match here Monday would put the legendary 'Black Stars' on the back foot with pool favourties South Africa to come three days later.

"For a country so rich in football talent not to win the Nations Cup for two decades is a disaster. This has happened because past leaders of the football association made terrible mistakes," Osam-Duodo explained.

"Among the blunders was toying with the technical directorate of the national teams. We won the Nations Cup four times because there was always a technical director to complement the efforts of the coach.

"We have also never prepared for the Nations Cup in the right atmosphere. Wranglings, personality clashes and a lack of funds have always crept up to set us back," Osam-Duodo said.

He guided Ghana to glory in 1978 with a six-match unbeaten run culminating in a 2-0 final triumph over a Ugandan team backed by the notorious military dictator Idi Amin.

Morocco are another leading African football nation that has consistently failed to deliver - their sole gold medals in the biennial championship coming 26 years ago in Ethiopia.

Like Ghana, Morocco failed to reach the 2002 World Cup, so the pressure is on coach Humberto Coelho, who took his native Portugal to the European championship semi-finals two years ago.

But a disastrous showing in this Mali town 220 kilometres north-east of the capital, Bamako, would leave Coelho with no option but to resign from one of the highest-paid but demanding coaching posts on the continent.

"I'm confident we will play to our full potential, but in a tournament such as the Nations Cup you can never be sure. I guess our supporters will be unhappy if we do not go beyond the first round.

"So that is our first target - qualification for the quarter-finals. After that, we shall see. I respect all our opponents and believe all of them will give us a good game. No one team is above the others," Coelho said.

Although Ghana have been Nations Cup competitors since 1963 and Morocco since 1972, they have met just once, with Morocco winning a group match 1-0 in Nigeria 22 years ago.