Ghana plays two crucial matches today, which may well determine the course of Ghana soccer for the rest of 2003.

The U-20 team, Black Satellites, take on neighbours Ivory Coast in a game they must win to remain in the 13th African Youth Championship.

Meanwhile, the national under-17 team, the starlets, takes on Kenya in a qualifying match for this year's Africa Under-17 Championship to be held in Swaziland in June.

Black Satellites walking a tight rope

The Black Satellites, runners up in both the Africa and World Youth Cup in held in Ethiopian and Argentina respectfully two years ago face a early exit from this years 13th African edition if they do not lift up their game and win against their Ivorian counterparts on Saturday.

The predicament that the Ghanaians find themselves in can be blamed largely to their inability to play as a team but rather as individuals causing their midfield break down easily.

As they go into Saturday's match against the Ivorians who have impressed everybody with their team work and technical ability the threat of early elimination is slowly becoming real.

It is time the Ghanaian players are told in plain language that they have not playing well if they have not realised it for them to lift their game.

Against an Ivorian team that has impressed all with their attacking game the onus is on the Satellites to dive deep into their reserves to show what everybody acknowledged they are capable of doing otherwise Saturday would be their last match.

The Ivorians, most of whom are from the soccer academies of Asec Abidjan and Stade Abidjan have one weapon that the Ghanaians lacked and that is their ability to hold up to the ball.

But they have sometimes done this to the detriment of Scoring goal.

If the Ivorians would continue to miss chances as they have done in their two games then they can also be in for trouble as Derek Boateng of Satellite can cause havoc when let loose.

The Satellites chances of going through also hinges on the fitness of Patrick Villars who has stood tall among his colleagues in the two matches so far player.

Villars who marshals the defence and the midfield complained of stomach upset after their last match and was given time to rest.

Apart from Villars there is no major injury problem to the team.

Group B other contestants, Egypt and Morocco would also be locked in a match that is equally important but on paper the Egyptians stand a better chance of winning.

The Egyptians have remained cautious as they know that matches between the two sides normally does not follow the form guide.

Former Egyptian goalkeeper, Ahmed Shobier summed it up in a interview with the GNA that the match against Morocco would also be very difficult since the two team play similar styles and they know each other very well.

"Nobody should write the Moroccans off since they normally do not play well against Black African teams but always do well against their fellow Arabic nations", He said...

Ghana Vrs Kenya

The match will be played in the gold mining town of Obuasi at the home of Obuasi Goldfields Football Club, some 165 kilometres north west of the capital, Accra.
The Kenyans go into this match with a two-goal lead from the first leg played in Nairobi on December 21. So when they file onto the turf of the Obuasi Stadium, they will be aware that they are just some 90, perhaps 120, minutes away from registering a momentous victory if they can hold on to that lead.
All has not been well with the team, though. Key players like defender Bonvenger Misiko and Nicodemus Anunda, the latter scorer of Kenya's second goal in the first leg, were left out of the team to Ghana due to injuries.