General News of Saturday, 7 December 2013

Source: peacefmonline.com

Kwesi Appiah: Ghana will advance despite “Group Of Death"

Head Coach of the Senior National Team, Kwesi Appiah, trusts the Black Stars are capable of picking one of the two qualification slots after the Group matches, notwithstanding what some pundits say is arguably the toughest of the groupings.

The Ex-international, who describes Group G as the ‘Group of Death’, reposed confidence in his charges and strongly held the belief that nothing is impossible in football.

“My Group is the group of death…We have competent players and I have total confidence we will go past the first stage," he said.

Ghana has been drawn in Group G together with Germany, United States of America and Portugal at the 2014 World Cup finals to be staged in Brazil.

The Black Stars will play their opening group game against the USA. This will be the third time in succession Ghana will be meeting the USA in all three world cup appearances since 2006.

Speaking to DSTV Super Sports 3, Kwesi Appiah, the first indigenous Ghanaian coach to qualify the team to the World Cup finals, admitted that playing USA “Is not going to be easy. If you look at the recent games the USA have played, their performance has risen but I have total confident in my players and we will give them a really good game”.

He however expressed optimism that “there is no way we (Ghana) will not make. The most important thing is to prepare very well and no matter what teams comes your way you beat them. We have got competent players and we have confidence in them”.

Ghana's second game in Brazil will be against Germany whom the Black Stars lost to by a goal to nil in their second game at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Black Stars will play their last group game against Portugal, captained by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Meanwhile, Kwesi Appiah has called on all Africans to rally strongly behind Africa’s representatives at next year’s World Cup finals.

“They should support the African teams with all they can, so that we (Africans) will prove that when given the chance we can win the World Cup,” he said.