Stephen Appiah warns Black Stars players

Former Black Stars Captain Stephen Appiah has warned the current players in the national team against complacency especially when they battle against the United States of America (USA) for the third time in the FIFA World Cup competition.

According to Appiah, the USA would be coming into the 2014 World Cup with full vengeance as they would not love to lose to Ghana for the third time.

Appiah said the USA now has a foreign coach in the person of Jurgen Klinsman who has participated in the World Cup before and excelled with Germany.

The ex skipper who led Ghana to the first ever World Cup in 2006 in Germany and in South Africa in 2010 where Ghana played against the USA in the preliminaries and won said the Americans would be approaching the Brazil 2014 World Cup with a positive winning mentality and would go all out to try to outplay and out jump their opponents, so it would not be and easy duel.

The 33-year-old described the clash with USA as “a revenge” for the Stars and Stripes since the Black Stars have beaten them twice on the same platform. “It is going to be difficult because beating them on two occasions it is never going to be easy,” Appiah noted. “What I don’t like is if we were going to play them in the second or third game then they would have played Germany or Portugal and lost therefore their morale will be down.”

“But here is the case they are playing us first and that will be difficult and definitely they are coming for revenge.”

On the current World Best Footballer, Christian Ronaldo who would represent Portugal against Ghana, at the World Cup, he cautioned the Black Stars defenders to be wary of him, because he can “single handedly” change a game. The former Fenebache, Juventus, Udinese, Hearts of Oak and Mighty Victory midfielder conceded that the Real Madrid super striker can be Ghana’s killjoy thus his lethal attacks must be neutralised.

Appiah opined that the current world’s best footballer is peerless at national level and has been the fulcrum of A Seleção, especially during the 2014 World Cup play-offs against Sweden.

“Ronaldo has overshadowed all the players but Portugal has a good team and nobody is talking about the other players,” Appiah told yours truly. “He is making all the difference anyway.”

The man football fans love to call Tornado will be going to the World Cup as a member of Ghana’s Technical bench (back room staff) and has promised to use his experience to advise and support the Black Stars.

He was however not happy with the way the bonuses and appearance fees of the players are discussed in the media. He noted that it can discourage some players and the team will not jell as expected.

Ghana will be playing USA on June 16 in Natal, Germany on June 21 in Fortaleza and Portugal on June 26 in Brasilia at the group stages of the World Cup.

The Black Stars have been considered to be in the toughest group as their opponents are highly ranked by FIFA, the world body controlling football. Meanwhile, Ghanaian football fans want the Stars to improve upon their two previous outings by reaching the medal zone.