Ibrahim Saanie Daara, a former Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, has urged Asante Kotoko to recruit a high-quality coach to take charge of the club after the departure of Seydou Zerbo.
The Burkinabe trainer was dismissed on Monday due to the team’s underwhelming performance this season.
Despite joining the club before the start of the season, Zerbo only managed 9 wins, 7 draws, and 6 defeats in 22 matches in the Ghana Premier League.
Currently sitting 7th on the league table with 34 points after 22 matches, with a game in hand, Kotoko needs to hire a coach of a high caliber, according to a post on Footballghana.com, which cited the CAF senior media officer’s tweet.
Coach Seydou Zerbo did not make the desired impact with the Porcupine Warriors. A top class coach is needed immediately. https://t.co/AC0YYIvHTa
Ibrahim Tanko, the coach of Ghana’s U23 team, has come out in support of Daniel Afriyie Barnieh despite his poor performance in the recent match against Algeria.
Although Barnieh missed several scoring opportunities during the game, Ghana was able to secure qualification for the Africa U23 Cup of Nations in Morocco later this year.
Tanko defended Barnieh by pointing out that his overall play was good and that it was unfair to judge him based on one game. Additionally, he noted that Barnieh is a new addition to the European football scene and needs time to adjust.
“I think Barnieh did well though. He spoiled a lot of chances but his general play was good. You can’t just use one game to kill a player, he just moved to Europe. I’m sure he will settle well at his club before the tournament,” Ibrahim Tanko shared
Ghana is aiming to break its Olympic Games qualification drought, which has persisted since 2004, at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Many are falling in love with new Black Stars coach Chris Hughton. I fell for him a year ago when I first heard him on our team. And my love for him has grown especially in the last week. Of course, it’s neither because he’s done anything extraordinary nor led us to an AFCON triumph after a 40-year long wait. None of the above.
It’s simply because Chris Hughton appears to be showing a kind of work ethics, some conviction and firmness plus confidence in his approach to coaching the Black Stars that I personally I’ve not seen in recent years. I’m his biggest fan.
I’ll however not get carried away, given the fact that, Hughton has got a long path to chart, in the next 21 months, to truly make the Black Stars an unbeatable team, talk less of winning an AFCON title. The nuance of his job is crazy. It’s early days yet, so early.
Yet in those early days, we’ve been witnesses to how he’s demonstrated that, our big name players, like captain Andre Ayew can be dropped without much fuss since the buck stops with him Hughton. While he wouldn’t underestimate the role of the diligent servant Andre, the decision as to who plays and who doesn’t play, firmly sits with him.
This is no complement but in two games, especially the Kumasi game against Angola, we saw how ugly our play can be yet with an ability to grind a win, not least, to appease the fans. We as well observed how we can organise immediately, even improvise in the face of adversity, in this case, injuries to some players, and still fight a favourable away draw.
Some colleague sports journalists have also had decent Hughton reviews. One that catches my attention is Victor Atsu Tamakloe’s point on how in the two games with Angola, Hughton made substitutions that quite impacted on the game’s outcomes.
“His substitutions delivered the points. In Luanda, all three of his substitutes combined to score the decisive goal. It may not be much, but in two games, we’ve seen Chris exhibit a mix of decisiveness, excellent game management and the humility to admit he’s got quite a bit to do in arriving at a cohesive unit” says Atsu.
I’m in no haste to hail Hughton over small, negligible positives but I’ll also make known some of the little, beautiful moments he’s supervised hoping that, in months’ time, our player quality and performance would improve with his guidance, and the assistance of the GFA, the government and indeed, all who mean well for our Black Stars.
The 2022/23 Ghana Premier League continued with match-day 23 fixtures over the weekend.
Medeama SC secured a convincing 2-0 victory over Asante Kotoko in their Ghana Premier League clash at the Baba Yara Stadium on Sunday evening.
Jonathan Sowah put Medeama in the lead in the 15th minute, and Vincent Atingah sealed the win with a penalty in the second half.
As a result, Kotoko dropped to seventh place in the league table, trailing leaders Aduana Stars by six points.
Meanwhile, Medeama climbed to fourth place, just three points behind the first position.
On the same matchday, Aduana Stars surprisingly dropped points at home to Real Tamale United, allowing second-placed Accra Lions to remain just two points behind them.
Bibiani GoldStars clinched a 1-0 victory over Samartex thanks to a goal from Evans Owusu, ending their losing streak.
Elsewhere, Dreams FC defeated Nsoatreman by the same scoreline.
Great Olympics and Legon Cities played out an exciting 1-1 draw in Accra, while Berekum Chelsea and Tamale City also settled for a 1-1 draw in their encounter at the Golden City Park in Berekum.
On Friday, Kotoku Royals defeated King Faisal 4-2 in Dawu. On Saturday, Hearts Of Oak suffered a 3-0 defeat in the hands of Karela United while Accra Lions were held in a barren stalemate by Bechem United.
Scores at a glance;
DAWU: Kotoku Royals 4-2 King Faisal
Scorers: Francis Andy Kumi, Augustine Boakye, Richard Dzikoe, Abanga || Godfred Asiamah, Abdul Latif(pen)
Man of the match: Richard Dzikoe (Kotoku Royals)
ACCRA: Accra Lions 0-0 Bechem United
Man of the match: Richard Sackey (Accra Lions)
ANYINASE: Karela United 3-0 Hearts Of Oak
Scorers: Emmanuel Owusu Boakye, Konadu Yiadom(OG), Richard Berko
Man of the match: Abdul Kharim Ayeh (Karela United)
ACCRA: Great Olympics 1-1 Legon Cities
Scorers: Nicholas Mensah || Kwabena Adu Meider
Man of the match: Amos Acheampong (Legon Cities)
GOLDEN CITY: Berekum Chelsea 1-1 Tamale City FC
Scorers: Mizack Afriyie || Justice Ato Mensah
Man of the match: Justice Ato Mensah (Tamale City)
DAWU: Dreams FC 1-0 Nsoatreman FC
Scorer: Aholou Gael Avocevou
Man of the match: Godfred Atuahene (Dreams FC)
DUN’S PARK: Bibiani Goldstars 1-0 FC Samartex 1996
Scorer: Evans Owusu
Man of the match: Charles Gyamfi Kamara (GoldStars)
The Black Meteors beat Algeria 1-0 in the second leg of their African cup of Nations qualifier at the Kumasi sports stadium on the 28th of March 2023.
The result secures their place in the 2023 African Cup of nations scheduled to kick off on the 23rd of June 2023 in Morocco.
The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw in Annaba on the 24th. That result gives Ghana the edge over their Algerian counterparts in the tie.
Abdul Fatawu Issahaku goal scorer for the Meteors in the first leg was again the hero in Kumasi netting the only goal of the game which was enough to ensure the result for Ghana.
Match Report
The game started with Ghana on the front foot with Ghana hitting the crossbar as early as the sixth minute. Ghana’s early pressure paid off six minutes later when Ernest Nuamah’s cross was headed in by Abdul Fatawu Issahaku.
Ghana continued to threaten creating more chances and came close again in the 26th minute through an Issahaku free kick. Algeria grew into the game and with Ghana’s goalkeeper having to be at his best to stop the North African’s from leveling the game before half time.
The second half saw Algeria fighting to draw level which required Ghana’s defense to be at their best. Ghana created opportunities of their own but both teams lacked in the finishing department
Ultimately Ghana walked away with a 1-0 win securing their participation in the 2023 u-23 African cup of nation tournament in Morocco.
Former Asante Kotoko star Eric Bekoe has called for the inclusion of Asamoah Gyan in the Black Stars technical team.
The 2007/08 Ghana Premier League goal king in an interview with Angel TV clamored for the appointment of Gyan as strikers’ coach of the Black Stars.
Since the exclusion of Asamoah Gyan from the Black Stars in 2019, Ghana has struggled in scoring goals in friendlies, qualifiers and in major tournaments.
The team has experimented with several strikers including Athletic Bilbao’s forward Inaki Williams but none of them has been able to make the position his own.
However, according to Bekoe, it is about the country make good use of Asamoah Gyan who is the all-time topscorer for the national team.
“Goal scoring is being learnt. Football is scientific now and can’t be compared to previous years. To me, it will be prudent to get strikers coach in the person of Asamoah Gyan who is our all-time topscorer.
“I insist Gyan is made strikers coach of the Black Stars and God being so good, he’s got his license. He’s done it before and can help us solve our goal scoring problems” he said.
The former Sunderland striker had a lot of goals in his boots with the national team scoring in three World Cup tournaments from 2006, 2010 and 2014 to become the highest top scoring African at the tournament with six goals.
Gyan surpassed the record held by Cameroon legend Roger Milla in 2014 with his goal against Portugal at the 2014 World Cup staged in Brazil.
Gyan has played in seven Africa Cup of Nations tournaments (2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019) helping them finish in third-place in 2008 and runner-up in 2010 and 2015.
He is Ghana’s all-time topscorer with 51 goals after 109 games.
The reason why midfielder Thomas Partey did not participate in Ghana’s match against Angola on Monday has been revealed by Chris Hughton, the head coach of the Ghana national team.
Partey, who is a star player for Arsenal, was not included in the Black Stars’ starting eleven for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match, causing confusion among many Ghanaians regarding the coach’s decision.
During the post-match press conference, Hughton clarified that Partey was dealing with a minor injury issue, which made it too risky for him to start.
“Thomas has a small injury issue & we felt it was too big of a risk to start him,” the new Black Stars head coach said.
Despite his absence, Ghana managed to secure a 1-1 draw with Angola, allowing them to maintain their top spot in Group E standings for the 2023 AFCON qualifiers.
