....in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon

A member of Ghana's 1982 African Cup of Nations winning team, Opoku Nti has expressed confidence in the current Black Stars team, saying the team has what it takes to annex the cup after 30 years.

Opoku Nti who is now the Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko; a team he once played for, told an Accra based radio, Joy fm, after 30 years, the cup should not elude Ghanaians.

Mr Nti described the country¹s Nation¹s Cup drought as unfortunate; blaming it on what he called ³the lack of cohesion in the game².

According to him, Egypt has excelled as the only African nation to have won the cup in an unprecedented sixth time because ³they have almost all of their professionals playing in Egypt.

³It is very sad to have gone 30 years without a nation¹s cup trophy. It is unfortunate that we are still struggling to win the trophy for the fifth time?We have almost all of our players playing outside and they hardly come together even for some few months. Each of them is playing in different countries; the system they play is different, sometimes, their positions at club levels differ from the national levels. These must be some of the factors².

³If you go through those who have won the cups for four or five times, you will see that there has been consistency in their team for a long time² he said, stressing that, ³so playing together is one thing, team work is one thing and individual skills is another thing².

This notwithstanding, Opoku Nti affirmed that the Black Stars have all it takes to annex the cup this time around.

According to him, even though the present conditions to a large extent are the same, the players should be moved by the level of motivation.

³We still have a few players in the national team who have played alongside each other for about four years now so; I believe that is a positive sign. We have a solid team, the motivational factor is also there; no one can dispute that², he added.

³The players should stay focus; they must know what they are about now. After 30 years, everybody is crying. They should have it at the back of their mind that this time, they going to put a smile on our faces².

Xfm 95.1/ Accra/ Ghana