Soccer News of Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Source: supersport.com

Ghana up for 7th straight Afcon

Coach Avram Grant Coach Avram Grant

Ghana has been to every Afcon since 2006, and now the African giants are ready for another crack at the title.

A friendly against Togo on Monday was timely ahead of the qualifier with Mauritius later this week, the team's skipper said.

The June 14 game will Ghana's first step in what could be a seventh straight Afcon since failing to qualify for Tunisia 2004. "We are fully ready to start the journey to qualify for the Afcon in 2017. The coach wanted us to move the ball around more to help build our confidence. It was a good, competitive match between us and our rivals."

Ghana won the match through a 30-yard goal from debutant Bernard Mensah in the first half and for Gyan, the result was not as important as the game's objective.

"I think the match was part of our plans for the match on Sunday and the main focus was to practise a lot of the things we had done in training," he said post-match.

"We were more focused on the day and we wanted to improve in terms of our tactics but I must admit that the pitch was not in the best of shapes to help our ball circulation but I think we did our best.”

Teams

Togo XI: Mensah - Dakonam, Akakpo, Amevor, Mamah - Amewou, Wome, Aboubakar, Dossevi - Gakpe, Abraw.

Ghana XI: Fatau Dauda; Edwin Gyimah, Baba Rahman, Johb Boye, Jonathan Mensah; Mohammed Rabiu, Christian Atsu, Mubarak Wakaso, Frank Acheampong; Majeed Waris, Bernard Mensah