GFA boss rules out complacency

(William Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent, Pretoria, South Africa)

Pretoria, June 14, GNA - Kwasi Nyantakyi - President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has ruled out the possibility of any form of complacency setting into the Black Stars team after their lone goal win over Serbia in the opening match on Sunday.

He insists the victory will rather spur the team on to another victory in their game against Australia, saying the players are experienced enough to overcome such mental problems.

Speaking to the GNA Sports at the team's hotel on Monday morning, Mr Nyantakyi said contrary to the perception that the team had sealed qualification to the next round after the Serbia win, they regarded that victory as the start of the campaign to winning the cup.

"Our qualification is not sealed yet; we have to beat Australia, even that will not be enough till we overcome Germany as well and we have psyched up the players to understand the situation.

"It is even dangerous to assume that we have already qualified, because Australia will be coming for a win after losing the first game and we must be careful of them.

"We definitely have no cause to be complacent, because Ghana is bent on winning the cup and nothing will stop us from achieving that target", the GFA boss declared.

Explaining why he believed Ghana would win the world cup, Mr Nyantakyi noted that this year's tournament was an African World Cup which must be won by an African country, and Ghana will be that African country. According to the FA President, Ghana stands the chance of winning the cup, because the team has quality players who play in the top flight European leagues and compete with the Europeans on the same level. He reiterated his conviction that a team from the continent would win the cup because that had been the trend since the competition started in 1930 and it must not change in Africa.

Asked whether the players were aware of the factors he had cited, he said, "That has been our psychological weapon and the players share the same opinion with the FA".

He added that the Black Stars were more experienced this time around having participated in the event in 2006, which had boosted their confidence and given them the conviction that they were capable of winning the tournament.