Barreto Thrilled By Olympic Football Qualification

Ghana coach Mariano Barreto says the qualification by the national Olympic side for the 2004 Athens Olympics is a vindication of his heavily criticised appointment by the Ghana Football Association.

Ghana booked her place at the 2004 Olympics with a 2-0 win in Kumasi on Sunday courtesy goals by Abubakari Yahuza and Kwadwo Poku over Zambia before a capacity crowd at the Kumasi Stadium.

It was Ghana?s third win under the Portuguese coach but most importantly ensured a return to the Olympic stage after Ghana missed the 2000 edition.

Asked if qualification has been made a bit more special given the criticism he faced before coming to Ghana, Barreto said: ?No, nothing special. I think though that this just tells Ghanaians to look a bit more carefully before passing judgement when a foreign coach is arriving.?

But he was very delighted with the qualification. ?I am happy, my family is happy, every Ghanaian is happy and I suppose the Portuguese people are happy too.?

He admitted however that his team?s performance was not too good. ?It wasn?t one of our good performances. It was like a cup final and my players were thinking with their hearts and not heads.?