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Soccer News of Thursday, 7 April 2011

Source: BBC

Stars named in Olympic squad for Sudan qualifier

The coach of Ghana's U23 Olympic team has tried to call up a host of big names for their must win 2012 qualifier with Sudan this weekend.

Some, including striker Dominic Adiyiah and defender Lee Addy, will be available for the game in Khartoum.

But some players, including Dede Ayew, will not be there, because the match is not part of the international calendar and their clubs have not released them. Ghana lost the first leg 1-0 in Accra, using a much less high-profile squad. Most of the players who have now been called-up were with the senior team in Congo and England when that match was played.

Adiyiah will be partnered up front by his colleague from the victorious U20 World Cup campaign of 2009, Ransford Osei.

Defender Jonathan Mensah, who like several others, has become a regular member of the Black Stars after graduating from that U20 team, will also travel to Sudan.

Coach David Duncan was denied permission to use Ayew by his club Marseille, and David Addy and Samuel Inkoom have also been prevented from joining up with the squad.

Ghana missed out on the 2008 Olympic Games but are now hoping the presence of the new names in the Meteors squad will see them through to the next stage of their London 2012 campaign.

Other Olympic qualifying games this weekend include Cameroon taking a 2-1 win from the first leg to Tanzania and a tight tie between Angola and Senegal in Luanda, which is 0-0 from the first match.

A full run-down of the weekend's fixtures can be found here. The match between Libya and South Africa has been moved to Bamako in Mali because of the current unrest in Libya and will take place on Saturday.