Satellites to re-assemble on October 9

Accra, Oct. 2, GNA - The National Under-21 soccer team, the Black Satellites will re-assemble on Monday, October 8, to prepare for the second leg of the Africa Youth Championship qualifier against Burkina Faso in two weeks time.

The Satellites broke camp on Monday after losing by a lone goal at the hands of the Burkinabe's in the first leg game played in Ouagadougou last Sunday.

Coach Francis Oti Akenten who said this to the GNA Sports on the team's arrival in Accra, said the break in camp is to enable the players feature for their respective clubs in the premiership which will resume on Wednesday after almost two weeks break.

The players are expected to feature in the next League games also on Sunday, before moving to camp for the decisive encounter against the West African neighbour's, whose outcome will determine which of the two sides will pick a place in the Championship slated for DR Congo early next year.

Coach Oti-Akenten said he remains undaunted despite losing the first leg game saying 93it is not a hopeless situation, we can still qualify because we are going to correct our mistakes before the second leg.=94 =93The Burkinabe's are good, but I believe we can beat them if we do our home work well, after all, we scored a goal which was disallowed and this is an indication that they are beatable.

The coach said the major focus is to strengthen the midfield, which turned out to be the weakest side of the team during the first leg as they lost most of the 50-50 battles.

Coach Oti-Akenten said that there was also lack of fluidity in the general style of play of the team as they failed to string their passes well, assign that hopes that such mistakes will be rectified before the next leg.

The coach said he hopes to have six of his players who were half fit in the game to return to full strength before their next match at the Len Clay Stadium.

He stated that because six of the regular players were not fully fit before the first leg, could partly be attributed to the team's defeat. The Satellites missed out of the last championship when they were kicked out by Cote d' Ivoire at the qualifying stages.

The Ghanaians will need two unanswered goals in the second leg against the Burkinabe's to book a place in the Championship.