Soccer News of Monday, 21 June 2010

Source: william d. ezah, gna special correspondent, pretoria, south africa

GFA vice confident of Stars success

Pretoria, June 21, GNA - Fred Pappoe, Chairman of the Management Committee of the Black Stars is confident of the success of the Black Stars against Germany on Wednesday, despite the apparent difficult nature of the encounter.

He told the GNA Sports in an interview that, "going past the Germans will not come without a fight, but we are prepared to fight and progress to the next stage of the competition".

According to Pappoe, who doubles as the Vice Chairman of the GFA, playing the Germans will be a difficult task for the Stars. He noted, however, that the Stars have what it takes to scale through, because the players are poised for victory.

Though Ghana will be going into the game with the odds favouring the Germans in terms of records, Pappoe said, they are not bothered about records, because Wednesday's game will be different in all aspects. "We have new set of players, technical and management team just as the Germans, so for this records will not count", he stated.

Ghana has never beaten Germany in any competition before, and the last time the two sides met at the senior level in an international friendly, the Black Stars were humiliated by a 6-1 defeat in what has been termed as the "Bochum Disaster".

With four points and a leadership on Group D, the Stars will need at least a draw against Germany on Wednesday, to secure a qualification to the next stage of the competition.

The Stars could have had an easy passage to the next stage of the competition, but failed after they were held one all by Australia in the second Group D game last Saturday.