By Aidan Wilkie

DESPITE only being few days away from their crucial Nations Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe, the assembled ranks of the Black Stars appeared in relaxed mood as they trained at the Accra Stadium on Wednesday.

Under the watchful eyes of interim coach Osam Duodu, the players laughed and joked as they were put through a light training session.

This is not to say that the exercise was not taken seriously. The foreign and home-based stars all performed the tasks asked of them, but with a smile on their faces, which hints at an impressive team spirit within the camp.

If this is indeed the case, rather than a show put on for the eyes of the media and the public, then Osam Duodu and his staff have done well in knitting together such widely dispersed footballers. Particularly so when one considers the state of flux which the national team is in due to the speculation surrounding the position of the national coach.

Of course the hot favourite to get into the manager’s hot seat is German Rainer Bonhof, who is expected to be a very interested observer at the match on Sunday. Undoubtedly this presents the ideal opportunity for the players to make a good impression upon the man whom by the time of their next match, they will be referring to as ‘coach’.

Worries about the failure of their international careers were definitely not on show on Wednesday, though. After a light-hearted warm-up, the squad split into two for a game where the emphasis was definitely on getting the ball wide and firing crosses in. It is a fairly standard training technique but may give some sort of indication as to the tactics the Black Stars will adopt against group leaders Zimbabwe.

It is hoped that if this does form part of their game-plan, then the crosses are of a slightly higher quality than those witnessed initially on Wednesday. Having said that, improvement was almost immediate as the players started to make it more like a serious training session rather than an informal get-together.

Tactics aside, what will be of interest is the contrast in the fitness b@#%$en the home and foreign-based players. The home players are of course at the end of a gruelling season, with Accra Hearts of Oak still in all three competitions they entered. This certain tiredness is contrasted with the relative freshness of the foreign-based players, who have, of course, just started their club seasons and thus have recently been through the rigours of pre-season training.

I would surmise that any difference will be negligible as the pride and adrenaline rush that accompanies representing your country surely negates any feelings of mental or physical tiredness.

At the end of the day, this apparent good humour and team bending will count for little and indeed may suffer if the Black Stars do not collect three points on Sunday. However, if the victory is secured, perhaps we will be able to highlight it as being a very useful contributory factor and Osam Duodu can be said to have left some decent foundations upon which Bonhof can build.