Rajevac seeking semi-final berth

From William Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent, Rustenburg, South Africa

Rustenburg, June 28, GNA - Head coach Milovan Rajevac, has set his eyes on a place in the last four of the competition, as the Black Stars take on Uruguay in the quarter finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. According to the coach, such a feat will be the third since taking over the reigns of the Stars two years ago, adding "I may be third time lucky by winning the trophy this time around".

At a press conference at the team's hotel on Sunday, the coach said he had, since taking over the Stars, played in the finals of Championship for Africa Nations (CHAN) in Cote D' Ivoire, Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) in Angola and dreaming of playing in the finals of the World Cup. He, however, reckoned that the team must first beat Uruguay on Sturday, before such a dream will be fulfilled.

"It will come with a lot of difficulties, but my players are ready to brace up the challenge in order to chalk another historic victory over the South Americans.

"Uruguay has a very good defensive network, young crop of midfielders and a very sharp attack and they are a very proud people as well. "We are aware of their strengths as well as their weaknesses and we will work hard to overcome them in the game on Saturday", he stated. He noted that though the team was three matches away from the trophy, each match will be taken at a time because every match is historic for Ghana and the continent.

According to the coach, they are still having problems with injuries in camp but expressed the confidence that the affected players will be fit enough to take on the South Americans and secure victory. Rajevac said he was counting on the return of Isaac Vorsah to pair John Mensah in central defence, as the former had recovered from the injury which caused his absence in the last three games of the competition. He said unlike the game against USA, the team will have more days to prepare adequately for the next game, saying the Stars hoped to have an improved performance against Uruguay.

Commenting on the absence of Andre Ayew and Jonathan Mensah in the next game, the coach said he had no control over the situation but only had to manage it to ensure progress to the next stage of the competition. "If you play in a competition like the World Cup, you will definitely lose something. You will lose players through injury and suspensions and that is what we find ourselves in now, but with few days of training we will know who will take over from them," he said.

The coach described the victory over United States of America (USA) as a big day for Ghana and Africa.

"The Stars played well, an improvement upon previous ones and we can only get better in the next game", he added.