Soccer News of Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Source: goal.com

Gyan pleased with rediscovered form

Ghana international Asamoah Gyan believes he is back to his scoring form after a slow start to the 2014-15 campaign that made him come short of winning the Arabian Gulf League top scorer award, which was snaffled by former Roma striker Mirko Vucinic despite Gyan’s side Al Ain winning the league.

The Black Stars captain found back of the net four times in his last four games for the Boss and believes he can add to that tally when they face local rivals Al Ahli in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League on Wednesday at the Al-Rashid Stadium in Dubai.

“I am a professional football player and there are going to be injuries in my career,” Gyan was quoted as saying by Foxsportsasia.com.

“Personally, this season has been a difficult one but I have done well to come back. Other strikers have done well to score in my absence.

“We are the best right now and scoring after returning from injury has helped my confidence levels.

"The most important thing is, we need to have a winning mentality. Winning has been a part of us now and we strongly believe we can win,” he said.

Gyan joined Al Ain in 2011 from Premier League side Sunderland and has scored more than 100 goals for the Abu Dhabi outfit, 44 in 40 appearances last season, but has fallen short of repeating that feat this term.

Al Ain topped Group B with 12 points to progress to the knockout stage and will face Al-Ahli in away fixture on Wednesday before playing host to the Dubai-based team on May 27.

The winner on aggregate of both ties will progress to the quarterfinals beginning late August.

Gyan scored 29 and 12 goals last season in the local league and AFC Champions League respectively but has only recorded 13 and 3 this season.