Sports

‘Appiah will learn from mistakes ’

A senior sports journalist of the Sweden-based Offside Magazine, Nyanfeiku Andor, has called on the appointing authorities to offer Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah, another opportunity to lead the national senior team.

Appiah has come under intense pressure to resign, following the Stars’ disconcerting exit from the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Egypt.

“The disappointment of Ghanaians as regards the failure of the coach to win the Cup is understandable, but I sense he would do well when he stays on the job.

“The Egypt tournament has given him some hard lessons and I imagine he would pick the pieces.

“Ghana may not have played so well but the Stars were only eliminated through the penalty shoot-out which could have gone either way though,” he said.

The Stars slumped to a 4-5 loss in the lottery of shoot-out to Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles – an upshot that has since triggered a googol of tirades on the coach and the entire team.

Andor, who is the president of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) branch in Paris, France, told the Times Sports yesterday that there were a decent number of young talents in the Black Stars whose performance signals a gleaming hope for the future.

“It was not all gloomy at all in Egypt as many of the young boys staging their debut, copiously demonstrated that they can carry the team to places with time.

“I believe with the likes of Abdul Majid Waris, Yaw Yeboah (did not make the cut to Egypt), Jordan Ayew, Samuel Owusu and Kwabena Owusu among others, Ghana has a promising future,” he asserted.

He said the technical team should go back to the drawing board and thoroughly assess the overall performance of the Stars in order to take bold decisions with regard to future of the team.

“Certainly, many things went wrong in Egypt and one can only call on the team’s handlers to put their heads together and make resolutions that would inure to the benefit of Ghanaians.”

The insightful sports journalist charged the authorities to start planning for the 2021 AFCON now, “because that is the only way we can break the disturbing jinx.”

Appiah was re-engaged as national coach two years ago with the task of winning the Egypt AFCON. Though he failed in that mission, he is expected to hang on until the expiration of his contract in December, this year.

Ghana has failed to win the Nations Cup since the grandeur of Libya ’82 – 37 years ago.

BY JOHN VIGAH

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