THE Ghana under-23 soccer squad arrived in the country yesterday for tomorrow's crucial 2004 Olympic Games qualifier with coach Ralf Zumdick predicting a tough encounter.

Zumdick said after edging the junior Chipolopolo boys during the All-Africa Games in Abuja which knocked Zambia out of the competition, tomorrow's game would be a good time for the hosts to seek revenge.

The German trainer said he was going to maintain the same squad that played Zambia in Abuja save for a few replacements mainly due to injuries of some players and club commitments to others.

"It's going to be a tough game. Even when we played them in Nigeria it was 50/50 but in the end we were somehow, lucky winners. We always respect Zambia, they have a good football tradition," he said.

Zumdick said the group, which also includes South Africa and Algeria, was still open and hoped his team could pick up at least a point to remain in contention for an appearance in Athens next year.

He said the Black Starlets who beat South Africa's Amaglug-glug in the first game of the campaign have made it a point to win all their home matches and play out draws on the road.

The Ghana trainer bemoaned the absence of Europe based players whom he said were unable to make the long trip because of commitments at their respective clubs and cited Ajax Amsterdam's Yakubu whose absence was a blow to his game plan.

The only professional in the team that has been put up at Chrismar Hotel and had some light training in the afternoon, is Patrick Vilas who plies his trade in South Korea.

And in the Zambian camp, FAZ has not yet resolved the status of under-23 assistant coach Simaata Simaata but expects him to continue working with the team currently in camp, reports Kabanda Chulu.

Simataa has been missing from the Zambia under 23 camp in Kitwe as the junior Chipolopolo shape up for tomorrow's 2004 Athens Olympics qualifier against Ghana.

FAZ spokesperson Frank Kangwa said the technical committee would soon be meeting to decide the status of Simataa who was brought in as assistant trainer to replace Dean Mwiinde who was sidelined on the grounds that he was clubless.

Kangwa, who is also FAZ technical committee chairperson, could neither deny nor confirm whether Simaata is still assistant coach or not and why he is not in camp together with the rest of the junior national team.

Kangwa, however, stressed that Simaata, the Unza Stars trainer, should continue working with Kaumba as they prepare the team for the 2004 Olympics qualifying matches.

"We have not yet made a decision over Simaata but as far as we are concerned he is supposed to continue assisting Kaumba in training the squad.

"We will be meeting soon and iron out a few things concerning his attachment to the junior team but at the moment we expect him to continue working," he said.