Soccer News of Friday, 30 January 2004
Source: GNA
The National Under 23 team, the Black Meteors will on Monday, February 2, begin camping in preparations for their second leg Olympic Games Qualifier match against Algeria on February 22 at Obuasi.
A statement issued by the Ghana Football Association(GFA) copied to the GNA Sports said 20 players drawn from the camps of Accra Hearts of Oak, Kumasi Asante Kotoko, King Faisal, Goldfields, Power FC, Liberty Professionals and Hasaacas are to form the nucleus of the team.
The players invited are made up of George Owu (pictured), Yussif Chibsah, Edmund Owusu-Ansah, Stephen Oduro and Charles Taylor from the camp of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, while Abass Inusah, Yahaya Iddi, Prince Antwi, Kojo Poku and Abubakar Yahuza are drawn from the camp of King Faisal.
Bernard Don Bortey, Daniel Coleman and Frank Kornu will join the team from the camp of Accra Hearts of Oak with Shaibu Yakubu, Lamine Nasir and Isaac Amoako coming from the camp of Obuasi Goldfields.
Mustapha Essuman, Suleimana Abu and Saliu Muntari are from Liberty Professionals, Power FC and Secondi Hasaacas respectively.
The team will be under the technical guidance of the new Portuguese coach, Mariano Barreto whose appointment as the coach of the national teams generated a lot of controversy.
A section of the media doubted his status as a competent coach before his arrival to take up the job of the national teams.
Coach Barreto will therefore use the match as his first major assignment to prove his skeptics wrong by securing the three points at stake.
Ghana lost in the first leg in Algiers early January, by a lone goal and a win for the Meteors will see them on top of the table to enhance their chances of qualifying for the Olympic Games scheduled for Athens, Greece.