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Soccer News of Saturday, 25 August 2007

Source: GNA

How the Koreans see and respect the Starlets

(From Caesar Abagali, GNA Special Correspondent in Ulsan, South Korea)

Ulsan, (SK), Aug. 25, GNA - There are convincing reasons why the Black Starlets must defeat Colombia on Sunday to stay in the competition.

The first reason is that Koreans revered the Starlets a lot due to their past performance in juvenile soccer. They are respected in Korea now because of their impressive performance in their first two matches, though losing 2-3 to Germany.

Again, before the commencement of the tournament in Korea a FIFA newsletter in South Korea has described the Starlets as one of the contenders at the world cup.

The "FIFA U-17 World Cup, Korea 2007" Said, "Ghana may have missed out on gold at the CAF African U-17 championship in Togo, but they should still be among the main contenders at the FIFA world cup. The West Africans have an enviable record at this level: the Black Starlets have qualified for this tournament eight times and won it twice, in 1991 and 1995. Ghana have also impressed closer to home, winning the African U-17 championships twice and rivalling Nigeria as their continent's best young side".

Another African country that the newsletter tipped as contenders are Ghana's arch rivals, Nigeria, who have already impressed fans by recording three straight wins to top group D.

Already, head coach Sellas Tetteh and some of the players had given Ghanaians much assurance that nothing would prevent them from winning against Columbia on Sunday.

Wherever blacks went some Koreans point to them and saying, "Ghana good", "Ghana good" and the boys surely needed to win on Sunday to justify the confidence and respect people in Korea have for them.