Black Stars shot-stopper, Richard Ofori, says he cannot be blamed for the two goals he conceded that led to the team’s defeat to Cape Verde on Sunday at the ongoing AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire.
Ofori, who was between the sticks in Sunday’s defeat to the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde, conceded the first goal in 17 minutes when he spilled a Jovane Cabral shot from outside the box onto the path of Jamiro Monteiro to tap into an empty net.
Two minutes into time added on, Garry Rodrigues put the icing on the cake for the Blue Sharks when he tapped home from close range after Ofori came out but missed the ball.
After the game, the South African based goalkeeper insisted that the whole team would take the responsibility for the defeat instead of blaming individual players.
Reacting after the game, Ofori told the media that he did his best to help the team in the build ups that led to the two goals but unfortunately, the backline was second in reacting to his saves.
“If you take a careful look at the goals, you would see I did my very best in the situation to stop the balls from going past me by stretching to block, but the defenders reacted late to stop the striker from scoring.
“One would say, I should have pushed it away from the onrushing players but if you watch how the balls came, you would understand where I am coming from.”
It is football and such things happen; we the playing body are not happy with the result but we have to quickly put it behind us and focus on our next game on Thursday, Ofori added.
FROM RAYMOND ACKUMEY, ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE
