Ghana has some good advantage among the teams participating in this Afcon given the somewhat underdogs status they are accorded in spite of their pedigree and quality.

Looking at the other big guns like Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Tunisia and Cameroun, the Black Stars have a better cohesion and experience among the squad, the core of the team having been around for sometime.

Most of Ghana’s squad have played together in four different tournaments and now know the strengths and weaknesses of one another.

The likes of Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew played at Afcon 2008 in Ghana and since then the duo have played in every other competition together.

Playmaker Kwadwo Asamoah emerged in 2010 at the World Cup in South Africa and although he took a break from international football he has played alongside majority of the team. Others like Christian Atsu, John Boye, Jordan Ayew have had four tournaments together, including their collective appearance at the 2014 World Cup.

The relatively new faces have at least played in the various qualifiers and friendlies with the old teammates.

Ghana has been at the last four Afcon tournaments with impressive showing. Indeed, since 2008, Ghana has always reached at least the last four – the semi-finals – and this could be the time to lay hands on the ultimate.

The great Samuel Eto’o was in Ghana some years back and had one simple question for former President of the Ghana Football Association, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, during an interaction with the press. He asked: “How does Ghana always get into the last four of every Nations Cup since 2008?” He wanted to know the secret.

It looks quite interesting that Ghana’s chances are not because of any external ‘enhancements’. Senegal, for instance, has had players switching nationality from France to Senegal over the years when the players realise they had very low chances of representing France.

Players like Sabaly, Kalidou Koulibaly, Niang switched from France to Senegal in 2015 just as Keita Balde who is Spanish by birth but has switched to Senegal recently.

Senegal’s Afcon performances have not been too impressive over the years, but now with their golden generation of talent led by the tireless Sadio Mane, they look to win the country’s first Afcon title.

The Terranga Lions do not look to have too much of tournament experience as a group, and it could be their weakness. What they have is the individual collection of players, and it may take more tourneys for them to gel.

Côte d’Ivoire, the 1992 and 2015 champions, has always been blessed with talent over the years, and the current squad appears to be even better than the previous years, in my opinion. The team has players who are leaders at their various teams in Europe and elsewhere.

Wilfried Zaha, Cornet, Nicholas Pepe, Jean Michael Seri, Kessie and others are the rising stars of their generation.

Nicholas Pepe is being pursued by Barcelona and Liverpool in the current transfer window and is also a top priority for most top European clubs after he led Lille of France to the second position in this year’s Ligue 1, chalking up a famous 5-1 win at home over PSG in the process.

These are great players, but as a team they also have the same problem as Senegal.

These are individual players who will want to do it all on their own if they have the ball. Zaha, for instance, has shown great quality at club level in England, the country to whom he once pledged his international allegiance, and look to be in shape to atone for the almost anonymous Nations Cup debut he had in 2017 when he switched from England to Cote d’Ivoire.

At that tournament, his style was very European and failed to work against the more robust African players; he was hardly successful with his dribbling skills.

Most of their squad will be participating in their first Nations Cup tournament, and if they are to go far they will have to learn how to play as a team.

Egos may run through that beautiful assemblage, but they must be able to deal with it.

Morocco as well has more players switching from France and The Netherlands to play for their country of origin. Hakim Ziyech is their best player by far this season coming into this competition.

They showed at the 2018 World Cup how terryfing they could be after earning a famous 2-2 draw with 2010 world champions Spain, a game they should have won. Their European style does not ultimately favour them at the Nations Cup, and they have lost two friendly games going into the tournament, 1-0 to Burundi and 3-2 to Zambia.

But those were just friendly games so, as we say in Ghanaian parlance, let’s watch how they fare. Maybe Egypt 2019 will prove favourable to them this time around due to the North African atmosphere.

Algeria falls in similar category with Morocco, with the likes of Andy Delort of Montpellier switching from France to Algeria. He scored recently in their 3-2 win over Mali in Doha last Sunday.

Algerian players are easily frustrated when decisions do not go their way, and it tends to destroy their focus on the game.

They are blessed with loads of talents from all angles, but their European approach to an African tournament has not helped over the years.

Most of their national team selections overlook their locally based players, and the few of them in the team just warm the bench.

Our Black Stars should see themselves as favourites to this tournament and go in there with the mentality to win. In terms of experience and team cohesion the Stars have it more than any other team.

Ghanaians cannot brace themselves for a shocker, and the 37-year wait for this trophy must come to an end here in Egypt.
Captain Andre Ayew won the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, and he will look to lift another title with the senior side on a soil that evokes fond memroies for Ghanaians.

Author:  Ebenezer Nene Korley Azu-Mate

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Namibia’s Manfred Starke scored the only goal of the game in the first half after goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi was unable to grab a shot at the first attempt.

The Stars tried getting back into the game and they were afforded a chance with a penalty but Mubarak Wakaso crashed his kick against the bar.

Ghana head coach Kwesi Appiah used the match to test the team’s level of readiness after a week of training. In the first half, he used a lineup of :

Ati Zigi, Joseph Attamah, Baba Rahman, Joseph Aidoo, Jonathan Mensah, Afriyie Acquah, Abdul Fatawu, Christian Atsu, Yaw Yeboah, Abdul Majeed Warris, Jordan Ayew.

In the second half, he made loads of changes to the team and used a team that had:

Felix Annan, Andy Yiadom, Lumor Agbenyenu, Kasim Nuhu, Mohammed Alhassan, Mubarak Wakasso, Ebenezer Ofori, Samuel Owusu, Thomas Agyepong, Kwabena Owusu, and Caleb Ekuban.

The team’s captains, Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan, did not feature in the game.

Kwesi Appiah is expected to name his final 23 players for the tournament in Egypt during the second week of training before a second friendly with South Africa on June 15.

Source: citisportsonline.com

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The match will be played in Dubai where the four-time African champions have been camping since Monday.

Ghana coach Kwasi Appiah will also get to see his players compete for a slot in the final squad which will be sent to CAF before midnight of Monday, 10 June, 2019.

Appiah is expected to name his final 23-man squad for the tournament after the friendly.

The Black Stars will take on South Africa in their second friendly game to be played four days later.

Ghana will begin their campaign against Benin on June 25, 2019 at the Ismaili Sports Stadium.

Below is the provisional 29-man squad for the tournament.

Goalkeepers

Richard Ofori (Maritzburg United, South Africa, Lawrence Ati- Zigi (Sochaux, Montbeliard, France), and Felix Annan (Asante Kotoko, Ghana).

Defenders

John Boye (Metz, France), Andy Yiadom (Reading, England), Abdul Baba Rahman (Reims, France), Lumor Agbenyenu (Goztepe A.S, Turkey), Kassim Nuhu, (Hoffeinham, Germany,) Jonathan Mensah (Columbus Crew SC, USA), Joseph Aidoo (Genk, Belguim), Nuhu Musa (St Gallen, Switzerland), Joseph Attamah (Basaksehir, Turkey), and Mohammed Alhassan (Hearts of Oak, Ghana)

Midfielders

Mubarak Wakaso (Deportivo Alaves, Spain), Thomas Partey (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Kwadwo Asamoah (Internazionle, Italy), Ebenezer Ofori (New York FC, USA), Afriyie Acquah (Empoli, Italy), Andre Ayew ( Fenerbache, Turkey), Christian Atsu (Newcastle United, England), Samuel Owusu (Cukaricki, Serbia), Thomas Agyepong (Hibernian, Scotland), Yaw Yeboah (Numancia, Spain), Abdul Fatawu (Asante Kotoko, Ghana).

Strikers

Asamoah Gyan (Kayserispor, Turkey), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace, England), Abdul Majeed Waris ( Nantes, France), Caleb Ekuban (Trabzonspor, Turkey) and Kwabena Owusu (Leganes, Spain).

Source: ghanasoccernet.com

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Information gathered by the GNA Sports from the Communications Department of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) indicates that, the 23-member squad was made up of Lawrence Ati- Zigi, Felix Annan (Goalkeepers), with Andy Yiadom, Abdul Baba Rahman, Lumor Agbenyenu, Kassim Nuhu, John Boye, Joseph Aidoo, Nuhu Musah, Joseph Attamah and Mohammed Alhassan as the defenders in camp.

Also in camp were Kwadwo Asamoah, Andre Ayew, Christian Atsu, Samuel Owusu, Thomas Agyepong, Yaw Yeboah and Abdul Fatawu, with Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Ayew, Abdul Majeed Waris, Caleb Ekuban and Kwabena Owusu as the attackers.

Six more players were expected to join the team on Tuesday, to make up the 29-member squad for the pre-tournament preparations.

There were Jonathan Mensah, Ebenezer Ofori, Thomas Partey, Afriyie Acquah and Mubarak Wakasu.

Whiles in Abu Dhabi, the Black Stars would face Namibia in an international friendly on Sunday, June 9, before playing South Africa five days after for the second game to fine-tune preparations for the tourney.

Ghana is expected to arrive in Egypt for the tournament on June 20 and would open her campaign against Benin five days after at the Ismailia Stadium.

Ghana is housed in Group F against defending Champions Cameroon, Benin and Guinea Bissau.

Source: GNA

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In a statement, the striker said he will also not be available for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt.

“Upon consultation with my family and team, and as an active footballer and captain of the National team, if the decision of the coach is to give captaincy of the tournament to another player while I am named in the team for the tournament, I wish to recuse myself from the tournament,” Gyan said in a statement.

He added: “I also wish to retire from the national team permanently; not pretending my presence would not fuel the purported undermining the country has seen under my captaincy.

“I would continue to serve the country Ghana in other endeavors as a businessman through various investments.”

Gyan made his international debut at the age of 17 and scored on his senior International debut for Ghana against Somalia on 19 November 2003 in the 90th minute. Since then, he has gone on to make 106 appearances for the Black Stars scoring a total of 51 goals

As the all-time leading goalscorer of the Ghana national team, with 51 goals, he represented Ghana at 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. With 6 goals, he is the top African goalscorer in the history of the World Cup.

Gyan has also represented Ghana at the 2004 Summer Olympics and in seven Africa Cup of Nations in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017, helping them finish in third-place in 2008 and runner-up in 2010 and 2015.

Source: starrfm.com.gh

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